Pokémon Transformation Chronicles
by Ryu the Weredragon
Summary: A collection of stories based in the Pokémon Anime universe, where characters from the show are transformed in some physical way. MultiAuthor, some restrictions apply. R&R Please!
1. Max's Pokémon

Pokémon Transformation Chronicals

Story #1: Max's Pokémon

This Story written by Ryu the Weredragon with help from Alex Warlorn  
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters mentioned in this story.

Notes: "Text"denotes human speech  
_Text _denotes thoughts  
-Text- denotes Pokémon Speech  
"_Text" _denotes Telepathic Speech

I shall use this on all stories in this collection from here on in.

If you want to add to the collection, read the note at the end of this story.

* * *

One night, Ash had wandered off on his own to do some thinking to himself, and to get away from May. Brock had left for who knows where, chasing another girl. That left May (who was asleep), Max and Pikachu at the campsite. Ash left his belt of Pokémon behind. Ash really wanted to be alone. 

Max was looking up at the starlit night, thinking about how everyone seemed to have a Pokémon but him, even some people who seemed younger than he.

Sighing, he made a wish upon a shooting star, _I wish that I had a Pokémon like Ash._

Little did Max know that Jirachi, the Wishing Pokémon, was listening to him...

...and unfortunately for our heroes, Jirachi isn't as bright as the legends say.

* * *

Ash was sitting by a lake a good few miles away, and was thinking about the one girl who seemed to walk out of his life forever... Misty, the current Leader of the Cerulean City Gym. 

_Misty... I can't stand waiting anymore..._, Ash thought, _May is getting on my nerves._

He thought back to a few years ago, when he and Misty were always fighting. He could just KICK himself for not apoligizing for all those times.

He started to notice something was off tho... Everything seemed to be getting... Taller. However, upon looking into the pond he was standing by, he saw that he was getting smaller... and younger! Ash stumbled backwards, and fell out of his own clothes, now no older than five years old...

_What's happening to me?_, he started to cry in his mind, as he again looked into the water.

Ash saw that his face down to the upper part of his chest was now covered in Extremely dark grey fur. The sides of his face were now covered in light grey fur, and his Hair had also taken the texture of fur. He watched as the fur spread all over his body, making his hands and feet dark grey like his face. Suddenly, he started shrinking a bit more, and fell to his hands, and he realized his feet had shrunk so he's on four legs.

"No! Why is this happening to me? I'm turning into a Pokémon again!", Ash said, in a voice Ash hadn't heard since he was five.

Ash's Stomach fur started to darken, to the same color as the fur on his neck, hands, feet, and face. Then his hands and feet painfully reformed into what could only be paws. Ash couldn't help but whimper at this. Now he would never be together with Misty. A tear rolled down his furry cheek.

Suddenly, he yelped with pain as a tail came out from his tailbone, and his face was pulling out painfully into a muzzle-like shape. Ash's nose started to turn red, and his ears moved up to the top of his head and got pointy.. Now nothing but a mere Poochyena, Ash felt he had to get to Pikachu quickly. He knew from experience that he could still speak, so that would help too.

Before he left, he looked into the pool once more. He had to admit, he was a cute little Poochyena. If it wasn't HIM, he'd want to capture him... So he had to be careful not to run into any trainers along the way. He suddenly realized something... He was scratching behind his ears with his hindlegs like a dog!

That was the least of his problems tho. A Few minutes into his walk, he ran into a Sentret who threw stuff at him rudely. This got on Ash's nerves, and he growled like a dog and chased Sentret around for hours. Eventually, the small Pokémon ran up a tree. Ash realized he had ended up running farther from his destination than he was earlier!

* * *

Tears welling up in Ash's eyes, he began to howl a sad, lonely howl. He didn't know what had gotten into him, but he couldn't stop his howling. For some reason, he really didn't want to either. 

Meanwhile, at the camp site, Pikachu awoke with a start. He heard a Poochyena howling in the distance, and for some reason, it sounded familiar. He couldn't place it, but his subconcious mind recognized the voice. His ears drooped as he noticed that his master, Ash, was still not back yet.

Pikachu soon grew tired and fell back to sleep. But his dreams were filled with what would happen if he never saw Ash again. In the dream, Misty ended up commiting suicide, because the boy she loved was nowhere to be found. Pikachu couldn't stand it, and awoke with a jolt. He looked up into the sky, and prayed to Lugia for Ash's safety. If anyone would watch over Ash, it would be the God of the Sea.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Legendaries' "Shared Dreamworld", Jirachi was getting chewed out by the other legendaries, even Mew. 

- Don't you realize what you've done, Jirachi? -, Moltres shouted.

"_No sir. What did I do that was so wrong?"_, responded the Star-headed Pokémon.

-You have just endangered the lives of every Pokémon on the planet.- Articuno replied coldly.

"_What? How? By changing one human?"_

-Yes. That human is extremly important to the future of Pokémon-kind- Zapdos shot back.

_"He is my chosen one, Jirachi"_ Lugia said with his refined voice.

"_And Mine as well"_ added Ho-oh.

-Wha? A HUMAN? I thought the chosen one was a Pokémon- inquired Jirachi, -or at least that the boy Max was...-

"_Max? No, he's not from the right Region, nor is he old enough"_ Celebi Countered.

"_Lay off of him, guys, I think Ash makes a cute Pokémon"_ said Latias.

"_Yeah, you WOULD say that, wouldn't you sis?"_ Latios said suspiciously.

"_What's THAT supposed to mean?"_ Latias demanded.

-**_Please_**, Latias. We all know that you had a crush on him- this from Entei.

Raikou added his two cents, -We also know of your resentment to the human, Misty, for having claim to his love.-

Suicune nodded, -And that this would be perfect revenge on her.-

Latias sighed. _The others are right._ She thought.

Mew was also upset, _"Back to you, Jirachi. Since this is your first offense, I'll be lenient on you. But first, you have to do a little favor for me..."_

_"A-Anything Mew"_ Jirachi stuttered, as Mew was the one Pokémon everyone listened to. As cute as Mew was, he could be very dangerous, if the situation warrented it.

* * *

Ash arrived at the campsite, exausted. The others were still asleep. Walking towards Pikachu, he soon succumbed to his fatigue, and started to fall unconcious. 

_Why Me?_, He asked himself, just before his eyes closed.

* * *

Ash awoke to a cruel pressing sensation around his neck. "A poochyena! I can't believe it! Let's be friends! You and me all the way! We can hang out until I'm old enough to own a poke ball!"Ash knew that voice. "Pooch! Ye-na! Nana!" Ash's eyes opened his eyes in shock at this. What he had meant to say was 'Max! It's me! Ash!' Oh no! Oh no! He had **_lost_** his ability to speak human! But, but this wasn't like before. Guess this wasn't anything like Lily's magic then. 

Pikachu, who had been watching the entire fiasco with pity on their newest possible party member, and having been woken up by Max's antics, felt his ears stand up virticle as what the pup had just said. No way! Sure happened once but- ...Pikapi!

Sadly, Pikachu's words meant nothing to Max as he ranted that the dog was really Ash. Ash at least had the comfort of knowing Pikachu knew who he was.

But it did get Max's attention. "Huh? What're you talking about Pikachu?"

"He saying you're hugging the poor thing too hard!" May came up right from behind Max startling her little brother and Ash.

Ash & Pikachu sweatdropped.

May snatched up Ash away from Max, she had learned enough about Pocket Monsters from Brock to be able to tell when a pokémon was in absolute misery.

Ash was glad to be out of Max's overly-loving grip, May had enough experince from Skitty to know how to hold the small being.

Max pleaded. "Come on May! Let me take care of him! I promise I won't let anything bad happen to 'em!"

"I don't know." Thought May.

_DontbelievehimDontbelievehimDontbelievehim!_ Ash thought frantically.

"Oh why not." She concluded.

_Noooo!_

"Now let's find Ash! This'll be another scoop for May Ace Reporter!" She did a dramatic pose. "The case of the missing trainer!"

Everyone but May sweatdropped.

As May went on about what they knew about Ash's vanishing (which wasn't very much.) Pikachu desberately thought of a way to get the message across, if only he could write! Not knowing what else to do he raced to Ash's pokemon belt and woke up his sleeping team mates.

Grovyle, Swellow, Corphish, and Torkoal popped out, all tired.

The bird rubbed his eyes with his wings. -It's too early...-

The lobster's eyes darted about. -Where's my opponent! Where's my opponent! What! No opponent!-

The turtle moaned. -...Morning youngin'...-

Groyvole rolled his eyes. -Whatever. Hey! Where's Ash?-

"Pika." Pikachu calmly pointed to where Max was already ignoring May and going through Brock's cook books on what best to serve canine pokemon.

"Good idea, Pikachu!" Cheered May. "We can have all our pokemon look for Ash! Show time! Skitty! Beautifly! Combusken! Bulbasaur!"

Pikachu sighed, -She is an idiot, isn't she?-

Over hearing him Bulbasaur said. I concur!

Hey! Don't you bad mouth your trainer like that! Combusken retorted. Skitty is an idiot! May is just... up in the clouds.

Skitty didn't even resigister the insult.

Guys! We've got trouble! Pikapi has been turned into that Poochyena!

The pokemon all looked at each other, then at Pikachu, some in apprehention, others with pity.

I'm not crazy! Ask 'em yourself if he's Pikapi!

* * *

"_Why do I have to do this teleport? I have to reserve power while I'm sleeping."_

"_**You** granted your Chosen One's request without thinking, now help clean up your own mess"_

"_Yes Mew."_ Jirachi sighed.

* * *

-Guuuys! You gotta believe it!- Ash whined from Max's grip. -It IS me!- 

Max noticed Ash's desperate words. "Oh Poochyena, you want to meet Ash's pokemon? Ash is our friend, he didn't come back last night so we're worried about him."

Max knelt down and released the pup. Ash ran over to his Pokémon-- or tried to, he ended up stumbling.

Finally making it to his team after tripping over his own paws, Ash barked. -Come on guys! We've gotta get May and Max to realize who I really am!-

His Hoenn pokemon looked at each other.

-How do we even know you're Ash?- Asked Swellow.

"?" Ash was stunned at this.

-Who would know I caught you when your flock was harassing us for food? Torkoal, you joined the group when we both had the bad luck of entering the Valley Of Steel by mistake!-

Grovyle nodded, -I think he's telling the truth.-

Swellow glared, -Since when have YOU been so trusting?-

Pikachu sighed. What did he and Pikapi do to earn such a disfunctional team?

-Oh brother!- Moaned Grovyle. -How else could the kid of known that? If he's as old as he looks, he might not have even hatched when some of us joined!- Ash was confused about this until he remembered the difference in aging for humans and pokémon.

-Team Rocket might have told him.-

-Did you take paranoia pills this morning?-

Ash looked around at the camp site in missery, could this get any worse, maybe he should have just stayed at the lake and... -MY HAT!-

**_Everyone_** looked at him now. -My hat! My hat! I left it back at the lake! We have to go back for it!-

The pokemon all looked at each other and said as if of one mind. -It's Ash.-

Max was over Ash like Unown at a creative writing convention. "Poochyena. Are you okay? Are you hurt? I bet your hungry." The boy lifted him up.

-Help.- Ash yelped as he was carted off.

-Why is it...- Pikachu said. -When we actually NEED Meowth to show his mug. Team Rocket is nowhere in sight!-

* * *

Meanwhile several miles behind them plus maybe in another time and space... 

"Aaahh!" The rockets said together as they ran from one side of a courtyard to another, each time being chased by another pokemon, stepping over a sign that read - Warning: Home For Criminally Insane Pokemon

Pikachu shook his head free of the bizzare vision.

As May's pokemon engaged in the most basic search pattern looking for Ash (they were far enough away from civilization that getting the police wasn't cost effective just yet) and their leader was fruitlessly trying to convince his pokémon to do the same, Max had already mixed Brock's custom pokéchow according to the master chef's instructions.

Max set the food in front of the hungry, yet reluctant Poochyena, "Go on, Poochyena, I know you're hungry."

Ash couldn't stand the sight of the food in front of him, but his saliva and growling stomach made it clear his biology objected to his mind's declarations.

Ash looked, hoping that Max didn't totally mess up in making the food, Ash reluctantly started to eat._This... This is actually pretty good..._ , he thought as his tail started to wag.

Pikachu sweatdropped as he saw his trainer eating Pokémon food, and apparently liking it... -This isn't good...-

In a few short moments, Ash had totally cleaned out his bowl.

_That .. . . that was dilicious! I wonder what I haven't tried it before I, of course I haven't tried it before! I wasn't a Poochyena until last night!_

"Ya' see, I knew you'd like it." Cheered Max rubbing Ash's head fur.

May meanwhile was keeping her ace reporter farce, the best way she could think of to keep herself from becoming worried sick.

-Pikapi! You alright?-

-Of course I am, I agh! Of course I'm not alright! I'm trapped as a DOG! How could this be worse!-

-Could have ended up a Muk.-

-Point taken.-

-Or an Arbok.-

-I get it...-

-Or tripped and broken your neck someplace and become a Haunter...-

-PIKACHU!-

-...Oh ...sorry.-

-...It's alright... can you find a stick or something?-

-You wanna play fetch!-

-NO! I figured I could write in the ground to the others that it's me!-

-Huh? Oh! Actually that sounds like a good idea give me a sec'.-

Pikachu hoped and skipped away from the camp site, Ash was almost giddy, he was going to show the others undeniable proof he was Ash Ketchem Pokemon Master to be and he'd have the last laugh.

A few seconds later his companion returned, holding the intrument of his salvation.

Ash gratefully took it in his mouth ignoring the grimy fact it had just been in _Pikachu's_ mouth and found a nice spot of dirt and . . . . and . . . and-!

Nothing. Absolutely nothing! Ash felt on the urge of a mental break down, he had forgotten how to write!

-Pikapi, what's wrong?-

-I... I've forgotten...-

-Forgotten what, Pikapi?-

-I've forgotten how to write...-

-Then why not just draw a symbol?-

-I've forgotten how to do that too...-

Ash dropped the stick, and began to whine. How could this be happening to him? What did he do to deserve this? Hadn't he helped every legendary he had encountered?

-Ha! I knew he was a fake!- Swellow sneered.

Pikachu gave the bird his darkest look. -Shut... UP!- Sparts flew off the mouse's cheeks.

-Gee... what's up Ash's pokemon?- May blinked.

"They're worried about Ash and getting on each other's nerves, Brock explained it to me once. He got from this book called Pokemon Psychology For Breeders. He says it helped a lot working out the feelings of a mankey he and Ash met on the road."

Ash and Pikachu were taken away from their drama enough to fall on their sides from the sheer size of Brock's tall tale. That book was useless!

"Oh." Said Max noticing Ash's reaction. "Brock was this breeder who we all traveled with for a while, he said something about finally finding the truest of true love when we split up . . . I really don't get it, but he traveled with Ash a lot longer than us. He knew everything there was to know about Pokémon, asides from my dad, and Prof Oak, and Prof Birch, and-"

Ash tuned him out.

Ash sighed, this was getting depressing. Why didn't Brock mention the time he got turned into a Pikachu to Max? I mean, his headfur is still spikey like it was that time, so, why couldn't Max tell? Then he remembered how some Pokémon have different Hairstyles naturally than they should, like Richie's Pikachu, Sparky for instance. Another sigh.

Ash wondered how he was ever gonna get out of THIS one. Misty would have figured it out by now. But he was stuck with a naïve child and... and... May! With tears in his eyes, Ash looked up to the moon, that was still up this early in the morning, and howled again.

"What's wrong, Poochyena?", Max asked, "Brock never said anything about Pokémon who just burst out crying..."

Apparently, Brock hadn't said anything about Larvitar either... _Leave it to Brock to leave out anything that he had no importance in_, Ash thought bitterly.

In uncharted territory, Max began to stroke Ash's fur sothingly and gently, going back on the most basic knowlege of what a canine pokemon enjoy. It did in fact have a qauntilizing effect on Ash. His instincts telling him everything was alright. Stroke, stroke, stroke: calm. Stroke, stroke, stroke: peace. Stroke, stroke, stroke: tired. Stroke, stroke, stroke: sleepy. Stroke, stroke, stroke: nighty-night.

Pikachu didn't know if it was a good or bad thing when Ash feel asleep in Max's arms. Pikachu remembered the first time this happened, but that time Ash hadn't lost his voice and he hadn't lost any of his mental prowess.

But at least he was sleeping right now and not running his own mind into the ground with worry and thoughts of doom and gloom. But who knew what he was thinking? No one truely understood the mind of a dark type, Corphish was a prime example of this: while not heartless as the stereo type made them out to be, they did tend to be sadistic or agressive when the opertunity arised. Pikachu almost zapped himself for thinking Ash's mind that of a dark type, he hadn't started acting like an electric type when he got changed into a pikachu. Then again, Ash had always been hyper active.

And now that Pikachu thought about it, that hyper activeness seemed gone. Ash just falling asleep like that wasn't normal, Ash's trouble was waking up, normally because he spent half the night day dreaming.

"Pikapi." The mouse sighed. How were they going to get of this mess?

"You see May?" Pointed out Max to the sleeping darkness monster. "I CAN take care of him!"

"Huh? Oh sure, of course you can." Half of May's brain was coming up with nightmare images of Ash's fate, the other half was busy maintaining the 'impossibly optimistic ace reporter' image to keep Max from pushing down on how she wasn't as tough as she pretended to be half the time.

Max fumed. "Will you listen me?"

"I said good job." Returned May, wondering how long Beautifly would take to find Ash. She didn't dare think that her star performer would turn up nothing.

* * *

"Come back here cute Tenecruel! I just wanna be your friend! Being in a pokéball isn't bad I promise!" Misty ran through the forest a mile behind Ash and co's group, this had meant to be her surprise, but she had gotten side tracked by looking for new water monsters in Hoenn. When seeing her favorite monster just moving across on dry land, she didn't really think about the impossiblity of it and went straight into "fan girl" mode. 

Mew wasn't worried about not being able to hold his Transformation, he was just worried that Misty would actually catch up with her before leading the human to Ash's group. How could one human possibly run that fast when not in mortal danger?

This would have been much much easier if Ash had been changed into anything other than a dark type. Then Mew could have just done the job psychically and that would have been that, but no such luck. If Jirachi wasn't already sleeping inside a crystal cocoon under several tons of rock guarded by an immortal dark type, Mew would haveused Pound on that empty star shaped head of his.

* * *

Spiritually, dreams are when the mind's eye have total freedom, and one is not limited by material things in one's perspective of the universe. Biologically, it was when the brain went through it's cache file and dumped anything that wasn't useful in long term. Sadly, software must follow hardware, and thus, as Ash's mind slept, his subconcious sorted and let go of names, places, ideas, concepts, events, making room in the smaller skull for instinctual knowelge and impulses. Only emotions survived the on-slaught somehow, feelings and faces (if not names) connected to those feelings. A tall brownish red haired human female was the symbol of scantium and security. A pikachu represented protected by and to protect in turn. And a orange haired human girl also held meaning. 

Soon, Misty had chased the 'Tentacruel' to a spot near a lake... Misty stopped chasing when she saw Ash's cap, the one he was wearing the last time she had saw him. _Wait, this is...

* * *

In a place that did not exist but was everywhere. "I Bet you playing a role in one of my fantasies that Misty catches up to Mew before she's lead to Ash's camp." Said 'Molly' to Latias. _

"You're on! And if Mew does make it, you have to create one of my fantasies instead!"

"Okay!" 'Molly' clapped.

* * *

Flashback... 

"Hey Misty!"

"Hey Ash! When you'd get your hat back?"

"Er, my mom sent it to me."

"What **really** happened?"

" . . . Didn't feel right without my lucky hat so I thought I'd have Bulbasaur sneak to me when I transferred him over to meet May's Bulbasuar."

"Heh, don't like your mother's choice in cloths for you?"

"It's nothing like that! I just happen to like this hat . . it didn't feel the same without it."

Misty whispered. "Is that the only thing that doesn't feel the same? . . ."

"What you say Misty?"

"! I said if yours and May's Bulbasaur are anything alike."

"Not much. My Bulbasuar is always calm and collected, May's must have a case of permanant hemroids."

Misty laughed. "How'd you even know what hemroids are?"

"Hey I read!"

"Yea, comic books. Upside down."

"Hey! Why do you always have to make fun of me like that?"

"Come on Ash I'm just being friendly."

Daisy. "Misty! We need you to feed the Gyrados . . now that you're not afraid of them anymore, we can have you do that too."

Misty moaned. "Coming . . ."

* * *

"Teta! Cruel! Cruel!" The pokémon's voice snapped Misty back to reality and she again saw the water pokemon standing perfectly on dry land waving half it's arms about to get her attention. The moment she took a step towards it, it again started running, but came back as soon as it was out of sight, and repeated it's act. Weird, almost like it wanted her to follow it. Of course! The Tenecruel around here must have known how trainers carried healing Potions, and one of their friends must have been badly hurt! Well, Mighty Misty to the rescue! 

"Okay Tentacruel! Lead me to your friends! I'll never let a water pokemon down!"

Mew mentally sweat dropped, but hey, don't look a gift Ponyta in the mouth.

"Cruel-cruel!" It began to move again away from Misty, staying at a good enough pace for her to keep up while still urging her onwards.

Misty eventually made it to where the Pokémon was leading her, but she lost track of it... Maybe it wasn't a Tentacruel at all... But she had found Ash's friend Max... and that girl they were with, May...

"Max! You..."

Pokémon and humans alike all turned and were stunned silent at the site of Misty all people in the middle of nowhere . . . what was going on?

Swellow began instantly. -Watch out! Now the Ditto have sent a clone of Misty to infiltrate us before replacing us all with ditto clones!-

The rest of the team looked at him. -SHUT UP, SWELLOW!-

May had since gotten over her 'blindly adoring fan girl' phase when around Misty, might have had something to do with the cold shoulder she had given the girl after Misty had seen May hugging Ash in the last video phone discussion. "...You..." It had turned mutual. May spotted the object of desire of the object of her desires. "Ash's hat! Whereishe?Ishealright?Whyisnthewithyou? Didyouleavehim!"

"I haven't seen Ash, you stupid girl!"

"Don't you call me stupid!" The girls were nose to nose and breathing fire.

_I'm never gonna insult Ash about his intellegence again!_, Misty thought

Max with his Poochyena took some protective steps back. The dog squirmed from the noise.

"I can't believe I looked UP to you!"

"I can't believe I LIKED you!"

"You're a total jerk!"

"You're the jerk, and also a tramp as well!"

"TRAMP?" Tears now swelled in May's eyes.

"Yeah, tramp. I should also say slut. You want Ash, Brendon Birch, and from what I've seen, Drew too. That's a bit greedy if you ask me!"

"Drew!" May turned a slight shade of green. "That's it!" May snapped. "You wanna battle!"

"You! A coordinator against a trainer! Bring it on!"

"Uh..." Interupted Max. "Isn't it totally illegal to use a Pokémon battle to settle personal grudges?"

The two snapped at him together. "You stay out of this!"

"At least I have more than just water types!", May countered.

"At least I don't try to steal other people's boyfriends!" Misty said instinctively... _Wait... Did I just say... **BOYFRIEND**?_

"I'm not the one who's always insulting him! You're almost as bad as Jessie!"

"You're comparing **_ME_** to that hag?"

"If the shoe fits!"

Pikachu decided to end this meowth fight between two people he both considered his friends the old fashioned way. "PIKA-CHU!" A flash of lightning later both May and Misty were on the ground smoldering.

Max looked at Pikachu. "Maybe we oughtta' make you team leader."

The petty jealously bug temporarly exorcized from both girl's systems, May asked in a more rational voice. "Do you know where Ash is?"

"No I don't . . . All I found was his hat by the lake."

" . . . Did you look underwater for him?"

Misty was stunned silent, she hadn't . . . she had been too interested in adding a new pokemon to her team. She could just kick herself in that moment.

"Now look what you guys did." Scolded Max best he could to the two older kids. "You woke up Poochyena."

Misty blinked, _Since when did Max have a Pokémon?_

"Whoops! Sorry, Poochyena. I didn't mean to wake you up from your nap", May apoligized.

As Misty looked at the Poochyena, she realized that something was odd about him. For one thing, his eyes were Brown and White, rather than the usual color. Also, his Headfur looked suspiciously like... "Ash?"

The Poochyena looked at Misty and his tried to remember where he had seen this human before, the feelings he had for her were strong, very strong.

-Mama!- The Poochyena barked.

-MAMA!- Pikachu's eyes almost went cross. -How's she your mama!-

The pooch calmly looked at Pikachu. -A doggy's best friend is his mama.-

Pikachu fell over.

"Ash!" May said totally confused at what Misty was implying, how could that pokemon be Ash? That's when May finally took in the detail of the pokédog's features... and it clicked.

"Ash?" Max looked around for his friend holding his friend.

"You're holding Ash!" Misty pointed.

"You're crazy!" Max retorted holding Poochyena closer to him.

"Look at him!"

"I see a Poochyena!"

"No she's right! Look at him! . . . Those are Ash's eyes! I'd know them anywhere."

Misty's concern for Ash overrode her desire to somehow contradict May.

"This is just like with Lily!"

"Lily?" They said together. "Your sister?"

"No!" Misty retorted. "This girl was nice but a real witch! She want our help in gather the ingredients for a pokmon mind reading spell but it backfired and turn Ash into a Pikachu instead! Thankfully it wore off after about half a day."

"You think it'll wear off then?"

"I don't know... Pikachu, what do you think?"

Pikachu shrugs.

Having heard what Ash had said had pretty set the mood of every pokemon there to a new low.

Misty looked into Poochyena's eyes. Max still firmly convinced Misty had gone crazy (if this really was Misty) and that May had caught whatever she had.

"Ash . . . I wish I could understand you." Misty gasped as before their eyes she shrunk into her cloths taking on a chibi appearance. Before she even had a chance to realize what had happened to her, gray and dark gray fur covered her body, and her hands and feet morphed into the same shape. This was followed by her face reshaping itself as a tail grew out of her rear, in seconds, she had become a Poochyena like Ash!

Misty felt dizzy and a second later looked up at the other Poochyena being held by the human with clear things over his face. -Hello.-

-Hi!- Replied the other Poochyena understanding her perfectly.

* * *

"_JIRACHI!"_

"_What? . . . I didn't just limit my wish granting to my chosen so I figured this balanced things out..."_

"_Astral projection or not, here comes the pain!"_

_"You hear something?"_ Said Latias.

"_Nothing important, now giggy up, we haven't flow all the way around the world yet!"_

" _...dumb bet..."

* * *

May and Max simultaniously did a wild take at the bizzare tresspass on reality that had just occcured. _

"It's a disease and it's going to get us next!" Max freaked being scientific as always still not dropping Ash.

"I just wish I knew what was going on!" May whinned. "Huh?" She blinked.

"May?" Max asked courious.

"I know what's going on, I wished it, and I just knew . . . Jirachi . . . he somehow heard your wishes . . . and he granted it, then he granted Misty's . . . now he just granted mine . . ."

"J-Ji-Jirachi?" Tear began to form in Max's eyes. _Jirachi? Could it really be? _

"Looks like he's still looking out for you Max." Commented May.

"But, that's not what I meant!"

"I don't think Jirachi granted Misty's wish exactly by what she meant either."

"But, Jirachi should have known..."

"Jirachi's young, by Legendary standards, or at least that's what he told me..."

"Oooh . . . Ijustwisheverythingwasbacktonormal!" Max very lucky he had not simply said 'everything was normal' this would have resulted the human lives of Ash and Misty ceasing to exist and resulting in Max having two illegally owned pokemon (since he wasn't resigsistered as a trainer, he wasn't allowed more than one pokemon) that would have been soon taken away from him and put into animal care services. All in all, Max was indeed lucky.

There was just one problem really.

"Aagahhh!"

"Yeeeahhh!" Both Ash and Misty were now exactly as they had been a moment before, exactly.

Ash used Max as a shield while Misty struggled to get her cloths back on and considering if she could throw her hammer at Ash and not have it blocked by Max.

Ash and Misty were too concerned with covering themselves than to perform their traditional insult with each other.

" . . . . Cool . . . I got more than one wish . . ." Blinked Max. "I wish me and Jirachi were together again." Nothing happened. "Nuts." Muttered Max.

* * *

"_You have got to be kidding me!"_ The little girl exclaimed. 

"_You're the master of transmutation of legendaries like you did Entei!"_

"_Mew and Celebi would be sooo mad at me."_

"_It's just for ninty years tops! I promise I won't cause any more trouble for the next nine hundred and nine years -please- you know more than anything what it's not like to be with a friend."_

She took on an echoing tone. _"You get a normal life time of that pokemon with him! That's all we can manage."_

"_I understand. Thank you." _

"_You're going to be paying us back for this later, the others are really gonna chew us out for this. . . . Good luck Jirachi." _

* * *

The pressure and responcibilities of being one of the gods of the world lift from his shoulders, knowleges eons old was put away into storage for later use and his divine shape began to shifted into a more crude form, in both the unwaking and real world. 

Max looked sad. Suddenly, he was tackled by a happy Poochyena. "Gah! Huh? Why do you look familiar?" He asked the little Poochyena.

Ash smiled, "Looks like you got a friend out of this deal after all, Max."

Max smiled, "Yeah."

Ash suddenly pondered something, "Misty, why did you come here anyway?"

Misty chuckled and smiled, "I wanted to surprise you?"

Ash grinned. He had retained the memories of what Misty had said when arguing with May. He just didn't want to reveal that to Misty... yet.

* * *

_"Where is he!"_ Mew asked Celebi. 

"_I can't sense him." _

"_Do you think he could be de-"_

"_Don't you dare think that!" _

"_I can tell ya where he is."_

"_Yooouuu."_ The two upper legendaries said together darkly. _"Where is our son? . . ."_ The venom dripping from their voices would have killed a forest of Bulbasaurs.

"_Having what anyone should have, a life time with someone he cares about."_

The End

* * *

Okay, here are the rules about having your story added - 

1) It must take place in the Pokémon Anime universe

2) One-Shots only. If it involves more than one chapter, make sure that they are able to stand alone.

3) It MUST have a TF of some sort.

4) Somehow, one of the main characters (Ash, Misty, Gary, Brock, Todd, Richie, Tracey, Casey, May, Max, Raikou Special Heroes) have to somehow be affected by what happens in the TF.

5) At least one character from the show (also includes Kamon and Brendon, because of their cameos) have to be transformed.

6) No Yaoi or Yuri.

7) No Ash, Pikachu, or Misty bashing (This includes killing one of them off, "Just because you don't like them").

Some rules subject to change. To request your story to be added, send it to the E-Mail address on my page along with whatever name you want for me to refer to you as (preferably your handle), or, for those without accounts,leave your Address in your review, and I'll


	2. Pokémon: Apotheosize

Pokémon is copyright to Nintendo, Gamefreak and whoever else owns the copyrights for it. I intend no copyright infringement. This story is not canonical and I based it upon a request for a story exchange.

This Chronicle was written by Rusty Raccoon, with a bit of help from Alex Warlorn

* * *

**Pokémon: Apotheosize**

The sun rose, brining day to the land of Kanto. Creatures of various species began stirring, going about their daily routines, oblivious of the momentous event that was soon to occur.

A gentle ripple in the ocean gave way to a shadow soaring underneath the water like a torpedo. As it neared the shores of Kanto, it rose from the water, soaring into the air as small droplets of the liquid dropped off its smooth skin. None other then Lugia, the Beast Of the Sea itself, the creature perched himself on an outcropping of rocks.

Normally, such a sight would be something to behold for human, Pokémon or animal alike. Today however, reasons far more solemn then anything anyone contemplated dictated his appearance. Large bruises covered his body. He had slain the attacker trying to harm his son and mate but the cost was extreme. His wounds were beyond treatment; his old wounds from previous brushes with death finally having caught up with him. His own regeneration had stopped the bleeding, but his fate was already written.

As he spread his wings to dry off, a stinging pain coursed through his body; white energy rippled though his form and he struggled to stay upright. He knew he didn't have much time.

Gazing into the horizon before him, he knew he had to apotheosize his Chosen One before his time ran out. If he didn't make it, all could be lost. His mate was still busy raising their son; should he fail in his mission, she'd be unable to watch over the seas and chaos would ensue.

The sun was rising, its warm comforting his weary body somewhat. Taking a deep breath, he raised up and began his final flight.

* * *

Ash rolled back and forth in bed, his covers were a terrible mess and he was talking in his sleep. Pikachu, his loyal companion and fighter had even tried shocking him awake, his efforts doing little more then to singe the boy's hair. The yellow mouse was getting worried; he'd never see Ash behave in this manner. He knew something was wrong.

He ran out of Ash's room and downstairs where Ash's mother was busy making breakfast. Running into the kitchen, he started yelling at her.

"Pika-pi!" he yelled.

"What is it dear?" she asked smiling.

"Pika-pi!"

"You want something to eat?" she asked, oblivious to the mouse's tone of voice.

Pikachu shook his head and jumped frantically while pointing towards Ash's room. He needed to make her understand; Ash's life could depend on getting help and his mother wasn't responding.

"No, Ash is still sleeping silly. Come on, let me make you something for breakfast!"

Pikachu shook his head in frustration before running out of the kitchen and back upstairs into Ash's room. He was stunned to find Ash sitting up in bed, looking terrified and upset at the same time. Still, Pikachu felt relieved, ran, and jumped onto his friend's knees, looking into his brown eyes in wonderment.

"Pikachu … there's something I need to do,"

The mouse cocked his head, looking at his friend. Something about Ash's eyes told him something was wrong. They say the eyes are windows into the soul; Ash's eyes conveyed a troubled soul bearing the weight the world on his shoulders. Ash and he had been though far too much together over the past years for him to let Ash go through this alone. Pikachu had to know what was wrong.

"Pika-pi!" he yelled, determined to get Ash to reveal what the problem was.

"No time to explain, I have to go!" Ash said as he bolted out of bed, knocking poor Pikachu onto the floor with a thud. The mouse was ready to shock Ash when he realized the boy would never behave like this, not unless something serious was happening.

Pikachu picked himself up as Ash threw his clothes on. He wished he had some physic-type abilities, enough to read his friend's mind so he knew what the heck was going on.

"Pika-pi!" he yelled, trying to get Ash to respond.

Dressed, Ash tore out of his room like a Zubat out of hell as Pikachu pursued. Running down the stairs, Ash hurried into the kitchen where his mother was still cheerfully preparing breakfast.

"Good morning honey, did you sleep well?"

"No … had a bad dream, I have to go meet," he started, waiting a long time to continue "destiny!"

"That's nice dear. Can you pick me up some eggs on your way back?"

_Destiny, what **is** he talking about? _Pikachu wondered.

Before either the Pokémon or Ash's mother could prod Ash for more information, the human was already running out the door with his mother waving and telling him to have fun.

The yellow mouse finally caught up to Ash as they neared the town limits of Pallet heading south towards the ocean. He desperately climbed onto Ash's' right shoulder, holding on tight.

"Sorry … Pikachu," Ash huffed. "I wish my mother was more understanding; she just doesn't appreciate all I've accomplished. Even when I told her about that time I got turned into a Pikachu, her only response was 'that's nice dear'."

_I remember_, the little monster thought. Ash's mother never did seem too interested in his accomplishments. There were times both Pikachu and Ash had nearly died in their quests, yet his mother simply didn't seem to understand the tests and trials by fire they'd been though.

"I could have been stuck like that forever … a trainer stuck as a Pokémon; I can't think of anything more humiliating!"

"Pika!" the mouse yelled.

"You know what I mean; sure it was fun for a while but I wouldn't want to live out my life like that!"

Pikachu understood what the boy meant; he'd never been human and couldn't comprehend the embarrassment and terror of losing ones pokemones. Had Ash been stuck like that, Pikachu would have lost his trainer and all of the adventures they'd been on together since. Despite the joy of having another of his as a companion, it wasn't worth the price.

"I still have nightmares where I wake up as a Pikachu, can't find you or anyone, and don't know where I am. That could have happened for real yet my Mom doesn't seem to notice!"

Pikachu nodded in agreement.

"Well," he huffed, as he finally slowed, "She won't be able to ignore this … no one will!"

_Ignore what? What is going on?_

"I guess I should tell you. In my dream, … Lugia contacted me. He said 'his time on this world is … short' that he needs a successor. He needs me Pikachu; I'm his Chosen One. I don't know what he wants me to do but I have to find him before it's too late. If he … dies before I meet him…"

_He's dying? No! He can't die! If you succeed him, what'll happen to -us-, to all of us, Bulbasaur, Bayleef, and the rest of the team? You can't just abandon us!_

But Pikachu knew that his friend had no choice. Without a protector for the sea, little to nothing could stop evil.

Having burned out his sprint Ash stopped to catch his breath. Sitting on a rock, he wiped his brow as Pikachu jumped off and stood in front of him.

Ash's face seemed to go blank for several seconds, having a discussion only he could hear. Pikachu whispered his languages version of his name to rouse him. When the discussion stopped, Ash fell flat on his face.

"We're close. He spoke to me mentally," Ash said, standing on his knees, looking rather dazed. "He's almost out of time. Come on!"

Pikachu barley had enough time to get on the youth's shoulders again before he stood up, running with determination to fuel his weary body.

* * *

Misty arose after spending the night dreaming of defeating challenger after challenger. It had only been a week since she'd repaired the gym enough to avoid a second decommissioning. She'd fought a few battles and unfortunately lost them all; she was growing disenchanted.

She climbed out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom to shower. She was almost there when her videophone chimed.

Stomping over to it, she picked up the receiver as she yawned widely. Shock, surprise and curiosity greeted her when Sabrina, seer, fellow gym leader, and former sociopath appeared on the monitor.

"Misty … I didn't sense if I would be able to talk to you in time!"

"In time for what?" Misty rather impatiently asked.

"I had a powerful vision an hour or so ago, it's taken me this long to make sense of it. I should have known this was going to happen, I could feel the forces of fate binding him … I should have said something earlier!"

"Him who? What are talking about?" Misty demanded.

"It's Lugia, something's terribly wrong. Someone, I don't know who or what tried to harm his mate and son. He killed it, but his wounds…"

A short silence ensued.

"Are you saying he's going to die?" The idea of a legendary dying did not compute in Misty's mind, sure, she had seen it once before, but Lugia?

"In a sense but not really death, more like returning to his realm … a place light and energy. His son was to be his successor but he's not old enough. His mate cannot take care of their child and the world. He needs a successor before it's too late."

"What's this have to with me?" Misty asked, already upset enough about hearing the news.

"He needs … his Chosen One to take his place … to become the new guardian … and leave his old life behind," Sabrina answered.

"But he said Ash … where is he now? I can't let him just leave without telling him…"

"Without telling him what?" Sabrina asked, totally for Misty's sake instead of her own.

The teary eyed expression on Misty's face told volumes and didn't require any further answers.

* * *

Ash had been running for what felt like hours. By now, the sun was high in the sky and it was getting warm. Beads of sweat covered his face and his cheeks were purple from running so hard.

He could feel that he was nearing his destination and friend. He wasn't prepared for seeing Lugia lying on a beach, in pain and having difficulty breathing, in a position clearly from a crash landing and covered in battle scars. It was rather unnerving to see a beautiful Pokémon like Lugia in such a state. Lugia telling him he was dying had done little to prepare Ash for seeing it in person.

Pikachu jumped off the boy's shoulder, landing gracefully on the sand below.

"Come closer … I don't have much time," Lugia said. A ripple of energy ran though its body and for a second, it was crystal clear he wasn't going to make it. "The time is here, you must decide."

Tears welled in the young man's eyes at the gravity of what was happening.

"This … this is impossible! You're Lugia, you can't die … how could I ever take your place?"

"Don't think of this as death; more like moving on. But this world still needs a protector … my successor."

Ash sniffled as he rubbed his eyes and nose; realizing the incredible reality of what Lugia was saying.

"Me," he said, taking a few minutes to consider his next words. "You said I could do it … but how? I'm just a kid, what can I do?" Ash asked.

"Your human form is," Lugia started, another ripple of energy flowing through him. "Insufficient … you must shed this form, this life, this self for something … suited to the task … become like me. You must be ready and accept this existence for it to work."

Turning into a Pikachu had been bad enough. Ash had a feeling this was for keeps; that he was going to become something much more.

"Wait," Ash started, backing up. "You want me to become a Lugia? What about my friends and family and my life; How will I ever be able to be a trainer? That time I became a Pikachu was frightening enough. This sounds like a permanent thing!"

Pikachu also chattered in protest.

"I know you're frightened and that this is all so sudden. Normally I'd never make such a massive request of you … or anyone. Unfortunately, my son is your equal to a five year old and my mate is raising him; she'd never be able to do both tasks."

Ash knelt down and picked up Pikachu, holding the little monster tight.

"If I become one of you, what will happen to Pikachu? I can just abandon him!"

"You'll still be able to take care of your friends, I assure you. However, as Guardian, you will have to think of everyone. You can not choose favorites. I ask … beg that you make this sacrifice for me … for the world. As a wise man once said … the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few … or the one. You are only one boy; the lives of everything in the sea need a protector. Without one, anything could happen to them!"

Ash watched another ripple of light flow through the Legendary's body. He was in obvious pain, appeared to be fighting the inevitable ... and losing. Ash knew that he had to accept; perhaps this was his destiny after all.

"W… what do I need to do?" Ash stammered.

"Stand closer … I will do the rest." He smiled as he regarded Pikachu, sensing the mouse's concerns. "Worry not little friend; you're relationship will grow far beyond that of friendship. You will share a bond even stronger then that which you already have." Indeed for the Guardian, all were to be precious.

Ash petted his friend before putting him on the ground. Shaking with fear, a million thoughts ran through his head as he contemplated Lugia's words. The existence Lugia offered him dwarfed his own. The thought of never participating in another competition seemed unfathomable to him … he was a trainer. He knew however that he couldn't let his selfish needs take president over the world's needs. Despite his fear, he knew he needed to do this … he'd never forgive himself if he backed out. Besides, his mother couldn't possible ignore this.

"I'm ready," he said.

Lugia nodded before closing his eyes. A beam of brilliant purple light streamed from his body, striking Ash.

* * *

Riding atop a hastily borrowed fearow, Misty soared towards the shoreline Sabrina had instructed her to until she saw the brilliant display taking place below her. Lugia was lying on a beach, with a beam of energy transferring from him into Ash. Perhaps she was seeing things but Ash appeared to be growing; His arms were huge and covered in white feathers. They looked like those of a Lugia. His torso was also inflating while his neck seemed to be lengthening and something was poking out from his back and the seat of his pants.

"What are you doing to him?" Misty yelled, too off balance to think straight. The fearow she had ridden merely standing at attention for instructions as its owners had taught it.

She landed a short distance away to see Pikachu watching the transformation as well. The little monster was on the verge of tears as he watched his trainer and friend changing before his eyes.

Misty ran towards her changing friend, screaming his name. He appeared to be in a daze and wasn't speaking. She ran up to his changing arm and tried to grab it, only to be flung back onto the sand rather undignified on her rear by an unseen force.

"What's happening to him?" she yelled.

"It's his destiny … he's my Chosen One. He chose this fate because he knew it to be so," Lugia telepathically told her.

"Ash! No! I can't let you do this … not without telling you!"

Ash couldn't respond; Misty witnessed his swelling body tearing his clothes to shreds. A long white tail tipped with a pair of navy blue spikes was now a part of him. It swished wildly, just missing her. Two rows of similarly blue protrusions grew from his white back that they knew could fold back while underwater. His legs were moving to the sides of his body as his hips and feet changed, his feet changing into three toed white talons. His neck was much longer now and his eyes were moving to the sides of his head with again navy blue projections extending from his brows, his brown iris' now vertical slits. He barley looked like the lad she knew and now that it seemed she was going to lose him, she was starting to realize how she truly felt about him.

"Please … don't let him do this alone … I want to join him! I care too much for him to leave him like this!" she begged.

Lugia looked at her, sensing her true feelings for Ash that even she didn't realize until now.

"Beware what you say. Once this is done … it is done." Lugia words were unneeded however. He already knew the answer before the young lady nodded her head. "Very well then," he said simply.

A pink beam of energy streamed from him and surrounded Misty's body. She could feel memories and knowledge flooding into her mind, information necessary to be a Guardian of the sea along side Ash in this new existence. She could see Ash through the cherry aura was almost finished as her torso began rounding and her neck elongating. Her arms grew longer as her fingers seem to fatten and turn a brilliant white as the energy released Ash and a newly created Lugia lay there, slowly becoming aware of his surroundings again. Everything went white as Misty went into a trance as Ash had. Lugia was sending her millennia of teachings over a matter of minutes. Her mind swelled and threatened to spiral down into madness from all that Lugia was placing upon her. Anything in her heart and soul that made Misty human was shattered under the tidal wave, leaving only that which made Misty -Misty- in it's place on which was built that of a Guardian. Her life long fixation on water monsters became a sincere love, Her children. Her phobia of insect monsters dwindled to nothing, what could they possible do to harm her, a Legendary? There were no concerns about being the best; the ocean was her gym. Self-doubts and judgements planted by her sisters' years of put downs fell from her like pebbles from water suspended in mid-air. Her heart and mind's eyes had no debate over her beauty now. She was an image of hope for all who beheld her, just as Ash knew he was now.

Ash lay there recovering when he saw what Misty's transfiguration. He wanted to ask Lugia what was happening … but he didn't need to. He already knew, he possessed a new knowledge. He could sense Pikachu standing by him and raised his new and massive right hand like wing to embrace the tiny mouse. He no longer needed to guess what Pikachu was trying to say; he could sense his very thoughts, as though their minds were one.

"Misty … why?" he said, his voice deeper and more confident sounding but still recognizable as his own.

He watched Misty's body expanding, her clothes ripping away and falling unnoticed onto the sand as she grew to a size well beyond that of a human but slightly smaller then his own. Any human features that would have made the human Ash blush had already altered, and Ash now simply accepted what he saw. Her thick yet graceful tail sprouted and grew as her face shifted, appearing as though Lugia were molding it like clay. Her hips soon joined in as her legs moved to the sides of her torso. She was becoming one of his new species.

He slowly stood, waiting for Misty to be reborn with perfect calm, understanding what was happening and looking at the world through new eyes and perceiving it with far more knowledge then he even thought possible. Things that had been once all but invisible to him were now so obvious. Gary's childish insults and boast of his higher number of captures meant nothing now, they were the words of someone wanting to be superior to all those around him, and there was no such thing. Short-term material goals of becoming a Master had dissolved; he stood upon a new plateau. He noticed the Official Pokémon League hat he had sent in countless contest entries to win on the sand below him, the one he had nearly been beaten to a pulp retrieving once. Contests and countless quests, all human things that meant little in the grand scheme of life and the cosmos meant nothing to him now. In an action perhaps more symbolic then anything, he used a toe to flick it away into the surf without a second look. The Guardian didn't need it anymore.

As Misty's changes completed, Lugia released her. He smiled best as he could regarding the two new Lugia, a male and female. Like any Pokémon now he knew their names, Mother Guardian and Father Guardian. Her appearance was similar to his Ash's, albeit a slightly smaller size and orange where Ash was navy blue. Ash had a strange new feeling while looking at her, he could sense her thoughts now; there were no longer any mysteries or pretenses. He knew how she felt about him and why she did what she did. Having to ask her why was more out of habit then anything.

"I thank you Ashura and Mistaria, Guardians. I must now . . . depart from this plane . . . we will meet . . . a-gain ... But not in this world!" he yelled, raising his body to end his time in grace, holding his head high and his wings wide. His body finally gave up the ghost turning into pure, brilliant blue and white energy before vanishing in a flash, leaving the new Lugia, a fearow and Pikachu standing there.

Around the world, and in the hiding places of various legendaries, sounds of sadness echoed. Especially for two silver winged beasts within the protection of the Whirl Islands, and a female ocarina player on an insignificant island in the Orange Archipelago. At nearly the same time, like a shock wave, the world felt two new presences fill in the sudden void, two new protectors for their duty bound domains.

Misty looked Ash over, Ash blushing when he _felt _her eyeing him and realizing he was naked. Of course, such matters seemed minute given the gravity and significance of what had happened to them.

"Why?" Ash asked, looking at his former traveling companion in her new form. He sensed that she too felt slightly embarrassed over her nudity though such thoughts about being shamed at her lack of attire soon fell apart as they forgot about them. They had nothing to be ashamed of. Each was a Legendary, a Guardian.

"I think you already know," she answered, standing, albeit wobbly, as she was still nervous of her new form. Her own voice now more graceful and powerful yet still hers.

"Why didn't you ever say anything?"

"I didn't think you felt the same way; if I told you and you didn't, my pride wouldn't have let me stay near you!" She answered, hanging her head somewhat. She sensed something from Ash, although she was a few seconds behind Ash growing accustomed to their new abilities to interpret it.

"You didn't hang out with me for so long because you felt I owed you a new bike; you had a crush on me almost from day one. At first it might have been the bike but it wasn't long before you used it as an excuse; even going as far as to deny your feelings and make yourself believe the bike was what kept you with me!"

He felt her embarrassment, as though she were exposed. There was little point in her hiding it anymore.

"I guess I never wanted to admit it. Now … there's no point in hiding it anymore," she said, walking over to her formally human companion and nuzzling his head.

Ash returned the gesture, raising his massive arm like wings over her and embracing her. He realized the feelings he had for her; he couldn't deny it anymore.

"I guess I felt the same way about you … but didn't want to admit them for the same reason. The truth is … it was never the same after you left."

For both, they had released a huge burden from each other.

"Well … now that this is all out in the open … what do we do now?" Misty asked.

"I think dating is out of the question … kind of hard to go out somewhere now; unless we go for a moonlight swim," Ash grinned, liking the idea.

"Think of it this way Ash, at least you'll actually bathe regularly now," Misty joked.

They released each other and Ash looked at her, knowing these jibes were affectionate ones and not meant to hurt him.

"Hey, I bathed!"

"Well, yes there was that one time…" she started.

Ash simply rolled his eyes.

"I don't think your sisters can treat you badly anymore," Ash started, changing the subject.

Misty suddenly raised up from the ground, creating a gust of air that nearly knocked Ash and Pikachu onto the ground.

"My sisters…" she started, raising her wings as to let the sun shine proudly on them "Wait'll they get a load of me! They'll eat their bikinis!" she said as she took flight, already knowing how to fly. Indeed her sisters would have kittens; after which they would foolishly demand she become one of the gym's Pokémon; followed by them actually putting effort into their Pokémon training under their sister's great eyes. Finally, they'd try to cash in with males bragging that they had a goddess for a little sister. Lilly being so knocked off kilter that she converted on the spot and moved to the Orange Islands to aid in the upkeep of the Guardian's shrine.

The fearow flew behind with an attentive. "Coming my Goddess." Ash had no fears of Misty and him being apart, that was impossible now; their mental link was strong enough to bind them over even the greatest of distances. Verbal words were so crude and constricting, and so very often misunderstood. Meanings sent mind to mind had no chance of misunderstandings, both Lugia knew these were likely the last set of words either of them would ever bother saying.

Ash knew how Misty took praise, he laughed, hoping her head didn't get so swelled that she lost her flying weight! As he watched her disappear over the horizon, he sensed the exhilaration she felt in flying. Misty's monsters were overwhelmed when they saw their former team leader. Merely looking upon her was akin to staring into the face of their own mother. Their single desire was to stay with her always. However, she sent to them that she had her duty to be mother to all that lay in the ocean depths; they had their duty to keep her sisters out of trouble.

Wanting to experience flight for himself, Ash jumped off the ground and hovered, regarding Pikachu. He felt a connection to the mouse unlike anything he'd felt before. He could sense Pikachu's thoughts and could feel the little monsters pride for his trainer and feelings of affection and loyalty. With that, he telepathically summoned Pikachu to climb upon his back.

"First things first, I need to show this to my mother, she'll never be able to ignore me now!"

Ash shook his head and laughed again before taking flight. Before he had even reached Misty's air level, he had lost himself to the elation of flying. It was a feeling unlike anything he'd ever imagined, let alone experienced. True he had flown on Charizard and Pigeot before, but to fly on his own . . . the freedom of it was total. The feeling of air streaming across his body, no longer burdened by the human need for clothing was incredible, like taking a bath in pure warmth.

Even as Pikachu hung on, Ash ensuring the mouse's safety, the male guardian soared over the land, crossing distances in minutes that used to take him hours or days. He didn't know if it was improved eyesight or the height, which he flew from, but he could see for what felt like hundreds of kilometers, he could feel the life of the forests, rivers and cities. Before, he knew there were people, Pokémon and others animals down there. Now, he could feel them as if he were one with them and the land. He was their protector, their guardian. He felt as though he were the father of the very land itself.

He truly felt free and one with the world. He was ready to embrace this is new existence and life. But first, he had to make peace with the old. He needed to visit his old Pokémon still with the professor before letting his mother know of his new … life. He came about, banking deeply and flew all of the way home and landed in front of Professor Oak's house.

Even as the crowd gathered around him, wanting to know whom this new pocket monster was, clearly a Lugia but not the Beast of the Sea. Ash patiently knocked on Oak's door with one of his toes. The wise old man opened it a few minutes later and looked up at the creature before him.

"Oh … my," he said, rubbing his eyes to make sure he was seeing things properly. "Lugia?"

"Not quite," Ash replied verbally for the sake of them knowing it was him.

The professor practically passed out, falling flat on his back. Slowly standing up, he dusted himself off as he absorbed the news.

"How?"

Ash told the story to his former mentor as a crowd gathered. Among the crowd was his mother, who pushed her way through and stood beside her son. The human named Ash would have felt ashamed of people and his mom seeing him naked, but such things simply no longer mattered to the Lugia anymore. After all, when was the last time you saw a Guardian wearing anything?

"Ash honey, did you remember to get the eggs?"

Looking at his mother, Ash carefully spread his arms.

"Um, Mom … I think this is a little more important," he said.

"Of course honey, don't worry, I can get them tomorrow. Now you be nice to everyone dear," his mother replied as she walked off.

Ash didn't have to time to react before he sensed Bayleef sprinting from within Oak's house. She was soon crawling all over Ash, the new Lugia sensing her affection for him. He blushed, knowing she probably thought she really had a chance at something with him now. Of course, he loved the monster, but as a Guardian and protector of her; Misty was his true soul mate now.

"I'm sorry girl but I already have a girlfriend," he said. He could sense her disappointment and did his best to cheer her up. "But, think of it this way; I can take you for a ride any time now and I can feel your presence wherever I go. We'll never be separated again!"

The creature seemed to cheer up at that and returned to simply admiring this new Lugia as Pikachu climbed off his back. Any rivalry these two had was now passed; their connection to Ash now went far beyond any simple vying for his attention.

Sensing his 'father' having returned Phanpy ran out of the house, stopping in its tracks when it saw Ash in his new form. The effects of his 'evolution' were powerful and Ash felt a special bond with this monster. It considered Ash a father and while it at first didn't recognize him, a quick hello from Ash had it climbing all over his back. Ash could feel its love for him, a feeling that brought him great joy; for, when one is telepathic, the emotions of happy people and creatures tend to have a similar effect one oneself.

His old friend and companion Bulbasaur was next to walk out. The little plant like creature regarded its trainer, friend and now deity with respect and admiration. Self-confidence wasn't always Ash's strong suit but now, he felt proud and as though he had a purpose in life that went far beyond mere competitions.

Finally, his dancing friend Totodile approached him. It knew from the others reactions what was going on and did a happy dance for Ash. Ash couldn't help but smile its antics.

After paying visits to his others Pokémon, Ash finally took flight. He felt a small sense of sadness, as though he was saying goodbye to his old life and friends. He knew better though; it wasn't goodbye; with his abilities, he'd always have a connection to his human friends, family and his Pokémon. They'd always be with him, even when physical differences were extreme. He could also visit anytime he wanted; he was Lugia after all, distances were of little consequence now.

He looked forward to the existence and responsibility he had ahead of him and to spending millennia with Misty in their new existence. Truly, the end of his current existence wasn't truly an end, more like a beginning. With that, the names Ash and Misty were discarded, and two new Legendaries took their rightful place in the world.

-End

* * *

Okay, the lastone I gave you a list of restriction-type rules. Now, I must give you a bit of info about crossovers. You can turn Pokémon characters into Digimon, Medabots, Disc Monsters (Monster Rancher), Duel Monsters (Yu-Gi-Oh), Duel Master Monsters, and even, if you so desire, Neopets. Also, if you feel like it, you can drag characters from said series into this, although you won't be seeing any of THAT from me.

Until next time, ciao! 


	3. The Mightyena Project

Pokémon Transformation Chronicles

Chronicle #3: The Mightyena Project

This story written By: Ryu the Weredragon, Charem, and Alex Warlorn

Disclaimer: Don't Own, Don't Sue. I'm getting tired of these.

--------

Another Typical Day for our heroes - As Ash is off with Misty and Max exploring the next town... May and Brock are shopping for supplies... Or should be, anyway.

Brock soon finds a pretty girl and decides to follow her. May doesn't even notice he left...

"Ooh! This will look great on me, I know it! and this, and this, and..", May exclaims as she runs around the store, grabbing things without looking at the price.

The Cashier sweatdrops, as May grabs at least one of everything in the store.

Of course, Brock was nowhere near, as he had fallen in love with yet another pretty girl. He followed her in almost looked to be a drunken stupor.

Soon, she noticed him and turned around. "Um...can I...help you?" she asked, puzzled.

"Where have you been all my life, oh beautiful one?" Brock asked her with glazed eyes.

"Well, I was just in aisle 5..." The lady responded, confused.

Brock quickly took her hands. "You are the prettiest rose in the garden, but you must be provided for, and I would love to be your sunny day!" (if you don't get that...every flower needs some sunlight.)

"Well, I..." the lady responded nervously.

"Broooock!" May suddenly appeared to Brock's side, grabbing his ear and pulling him away, to the cashier. "I need you to pay for what I picked out, c'mon!"

Meanwhile...  
Ash & Misty were in the middle of argument #215. Max was beginning to question why Ash missed her so much during the earlier part of their journey. A Shock from Pikachu brought the cute couple (Ash/Misty same time: Misty/Ash and I are hardly friends!) back to their senses.

"Umm, Pikachu," asked the youngest member of the group, "are they always like that?"

Pikachu nodded.

"Oww... Sorry, Pikachu... Huh, I didn't realize it was getting this late," Misty said.

"Shouldn't have Brock and May came back yet?", inquired the trainer from Pallet.

"Well, May'll probably try to buy everything in sight until Brock stops her," Max pointed out.

Ash, Misty, and Pikachu sweatdropped.

"Which means, if Brock runs into a Pretty Girl on the way...", Ash began.

"...That we're going to be out of money by the end of the day," Misty concluded.

The trio looked at each other, and ran straight for the Mall. (Pikachu: Piiikaaachuuuuuuuuuu! ZAP!) Sorry, the four... (Pikachu: Chu. -)

When the Four Intreped Travellers finally got to the mall, they skidded to a stop with their eyes wide open, seeing how much May had bought at the various stores... Apparently, their fears were realized...

"Piiiikaaa...", Pikachu said, as he looked up.

"Umm... May, how much of our money did you spend?", Max asked his sister.

May sweatdropped, "Umm... Almost all of it?"

Everyone but Brock and May facefalled.

Misty couldn't believe this girl. She's worse than Ash used to be! "How... How Could you?"

May felt insulted, "Well, at least I shop, like a girl, rather than going out exploring like some boy!"

Misty growled back, "At least I'm not a bimbo!"

Brock ran inbetween the girls to try to break them up, but all that got broken was the sidewalk.

"Ow..."

"You stay out of this!", both girls screamed.

Max winced at the scream. He didn't know anyone could yell that loud that long.

"Wait, wait, Misty...", Ash said, "How much do we have enough to buy now Brock?"

"Well, we have enough to buy supplies for-- Two People."

Everyone sweatdropped.

"TWO People? What about the--", Max began - he was going to ask about the Pokémon...

"Remember, we already bought food and things for the Pokémon before May decided to shop," Brock reminded the young child.

"Oh yeah."

Misty sighed, "Knowing how Ash and Max eat, they aren't counted in the 'two people' that we have enough money for."

Both boys were offended, "HEY!"

May frowned. "All these clothes are very cute and important! I need every one of them! I'm not returning them!"

"She's right." Brock admitted.

"WHAT!" all but May and Brock said together.

Brock pointed to the store behind them, which had already closed - and now had an 'Out of business' sign up.

"Well, then what are we going to do about food?" Ash asked.

"Even if everybody shared, there wouldn't really enough for anybody. And I'm getting really hungry too!" Max groaned. "Lucky Pokémon...we have PLENTY of food for them."

"Pikapi." Pikachu answered contentedly.

"Hmm. It's a shame that humans can't eat Pokéfood, or we may have our problem solved." Brock pondered.

"Ew! I'd never touch that stuff anyways!" Misty exclaimed.

"I suppose we should go to a restaurant, at least." Brock answered. "We'll decide on who gets what once we're there."

Later at the resturaunt...

"...Say Brock, why don't you just eat Pokémon food. You ate it at Proffessor Ivy's...", Misty stated, forgetting what happens when 'that name' is mentioned...

Brock curled into a ball in the corner, and started to talk in a paralyzed tone, "That---name..."

Max and May sweatdropped.

"Oops. I forgot about that."

An explanation and recouperation later...

Brock finally answered Misty's question, "I-- I don't do that anymore. It brings the bad memories of..."

"Okay, okay, we get it," Misty interuppted before he could go into the trance again.

Ash sighed, "Too bad we don't have Lily's Magic. Remember?"

Misty grinned, "You just miss being able to goof off all day Ash."

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Pikaaaaachuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!", shouted Pikachu, causing a large bolt of lightning to shock them out of their argument.

The other customers stared a bit, until Brock spoke up.

"Don't worry people, this happens to them all the time."

The other patrons shrugged and returned to their eating.

Brock smirked inside, and thought - That isn't a bad idea tho...

Pikachu could tell that something was going on, but he wasn't quite sure what...

After many heated battles of rock-paper-scissors, the victors, Brock and May, were rewarded...well, dinner, while the losers went outside to sulk.

"He cheated! I swear he was about to pull a scissors and changed it to paper after his saw my rock!" Misty shouted angrily.

"Well, he WAS the rock-type gym master. He probably can interpret a rock better than any else." Ash chuckled.

"THAT'S ROCK-TYPE POKÉMON, NOT ROCKS!" Misty shouted, even angrier.

"Well how do YOU know he doesn't know his rocks? Have you ever asked him about it?" Ash challenged.

"Hey, would you guys stop fighting?" Max sighed. "Our hunger's getting the best of us."

"I'll agree to that." Ash said as his stomach rumbled. "Wish there was SOMETHING we could..."

Ash looked over to Max, who was drooling slightly and looking at Pikachu.

"Pi...ka?" Pikachu sweatdropped.

"Max! Stop that!" Misty exclaimed.

"Huh?" Max said, snapping out of it. "Oh...s-sorry."

Ash sighed. "I wish there was some free food or something we could eat..."

"Did somebody mention free food?"

The trio turned to see a blue-haired man, red-haired woman, and a Meowth all dressed in cook clothing.

"We come from a famous restaurant!" the man exclaimed.

"Yes! And every day we come out here to feed the poor and hungry!" the woman explained.

"Hey, we're both of that!" Max noted.

"Well, dig in!" the Meowth suggested. With that, the three 'cooks' revealed behind them a cart full of food.

The 3 trainers were about to pounce at the cart when the man held out a hand. "Na-ah-ah!"

"You don't want to eat out here on the street!" the lady exclaimed. "Please, come into our restaurant."

With that, she motioned to an open door.

...Part of Ash and friends were screaming at them that it was a trap-- as was Pikachu, but that's not the point here -- but the three of them were too hungry to listen.

The three trainers hurried through the open door, followed by the 'cooks'.

"Hey, this doesn't look much like a restaurant." Ash inquired.

"How right you are!" the red-haired woman replied, laughing evily.

"And we're not cooks either!" the blue-haired man added.

"What!" Max glared. "Then who are you?"

"Why, we're..." the lady grinned, and the 'cooks' threw off their outer attire, revealing their white and black clothing, a large red 'R' on the front of their shirts. "Team Rocket!"

Ash groaned. "Not again..."

"Prepare for trouble, no food for you!"

"And make it double, unless you hand over Pikachu!"

"To protect the world from starvation!"

"To unite all food within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth, love and hunger!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above and longer!"

"_Jessie_!"

"_James_!"

"Team Rocket, all filled up at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now, or you'll starve in this fight!"

"_Meowth_! Dat's right!"

"_Wobbafett_!"

And once again an epic battle between good and evil erupted...well, not so epic, as Team Rocket was soon blasted through the roof and into the sky.

Misty groaned, "You'd think that even they'd learn by now."

Ash's stomach growled loudly, "And now, I'm twice as hungry as before."

By then, May and Brock had finished eating, so, the group met up in front of the resturaunt.

"What happened to you guys?", May asked.

"Who do you think happened to us?", Max said coldly.

"Ah, them again. You know, I think I may have the answer to our problem," Brock said.

The other three were excited, "Really?"

"Yeah... I have to go in alone to get it tho."

"Oh? How could something you have to get alone--?", Ash began to Ask.

May interrupted, "It doesn't matter Ash, it'll solve your problem, that's all."

Ash and Misty were quite confused by how the two were acting.

May gave a gasp before they got to their destination, "I forgot about the Pokémon Contest! I have to go get prepared for it. I'll meet you all at the Pokémon Center, okay?"

The others nodded, "Okay, May. See ya."

As May walked off, she grinned to herself about something...

The rest of the group made it to a very creepy house on the outskirts of town.

Misty blinked, "This is where you have to go?"

Brock nodded, "Yep. I'll see you in a sec."

With that, 'The Rock' entered the cheap knock off of Pokemon Tower without even flinching. The remaining members of the party knew something was up, they all remembered their previous encounters with Ghost pokemon and their hang outs, and none of them went in alone after Ash's out of body experience.

Well, Misty wondered, Pikachu cocked his head, Ash was left dumb founded, and Max was wondering about the debate on weather Ghost pocket monsters were really spirits or alien visitors who just happened to share the many traits of ghosts.

A couple minutes past, but for a meal at this point, the group was willing to wait. At least since May had had her fill they didn't have to listen to her whining. Of course, it wasn't long before Ash and Misty thought of something else to argue about.

"This place reminds me of Pokémon Tower..." Misty shivered.

Max's eyes brightened. "Pokémon Tower! You've been there! Did you see the ghost of the mother Marrowack?"

"Er... no." Misty said. "Instead I got picked up by this creepy ghost!"

Ash and Pikachu both giggled.

"What's so funny!"

"Er . . nothing..." Ash was a horrible liar.

"No such thing as nothing! So spill!"

Ash sweated. "Er..."

"Speak boy! Or get turned into a pan cake!" Misty took out of her mallet ready for use.

"Iwastheghost!"

"What!"

"Me and Pikachu!"

"You! You did that to me!" Misty swung the mallet result in a headache for Ash.

"You weren't hurt! I knew Brock would catch you."

"How could Ash be a ghost!" Max asked, but the two teens ignored him.

"You... you . ."

Everyone was so fixated on Ash and Misty's latest squabble that no one noticed the cloud of black smoke that creep out of from under the decrepitude house towards the group.

"It was because of Haunter! He pulled me and Pikachu out of our bodies!"

"So he made you pull that stupid prank on me?" Misty snapped not believing it.

"Pikapi, Pikachupi!" Said the mouse trying to get their attention and failing miserably.

"I was a ghost at the time, it was my nature to pull jokes like that."

"Maybe we should test that theory!"

Max's yelp of surprise was drowned out by their petty bickering. The smoke had finally gotten his attention when it silently went above his head. Max felt dizzy as the gas entered his system and brought a paw to his forehead to steady himself, the scent of the smoke was bizarre yet familiar. Maxyena was at first afraid but the dizziness seemed to be already wearing off and he didn't feel any different. Calmly getting off just his rear legs and landing on his forelegs Poochyena scratched himself behind his ear with his rear claws.

"Ha!" Scoffed Ash. "You could never beat me and you still can't!"

"You got it!"

That was the smoke reached their height as well, Pikachu's sense of smell and direction having been fowled up the smoke long before it had reached Max.

"What's going on!" Misty said. "Yena already beat Team Rocket today!"

"Yena! But mighty yena came for yena punishment!" Ash replied.

Mistyena grunted. "Might yena! Yena would have yena their stupid mighty ye nana."

Ashyena barked. "Yena... Might yenana mina smoke?"

"Yee-naa." Mightyena ♀ shrugged. Maybe that lovesick human had tripped up some make shift cooking. But it didn't smell like that kind of smoke. The Mightyena both got off their hind legs and used Odor Sleuth to cancel out the smoke's effect to find their way out. Not that it mattered. The smoke dispersed on it's own a few seconds later.

Mightyena ♂ was just happy the smoke had taken his mate's mind off another fight, beating her repeatedly got boring after a while.

A yip got Mightyena ♂ and Mightyena ♀'s attention and they say Poochyena looking ready to pounce on Pikachu, the electric mouse made a few spark and Poochyena used Run Away to escape from the fight and hide behind Mightyena ♀. When would the pup learn the rodent was part of the pack and not food?

Mightyena ♂ and Mightyena ♀ had also noticed that the other members of the pack have gotten themselves trapped in those stupid red and white balls again. Walking up to each of them, they released Treecko, Corphish, Phanpy, Taillow, Staryu, Horsea, Corsela, Gyrados, Politod and even that annoying Psyduck. Poochyena calmy placed himself between the Alphas wagging his tail attentively.

Mightyena ♀ was just glad her mate had left Bayleef at the nest, as the plant-type never could understand that the Dark-Type was the Alpha Female. However, The Mightyena and Poochyena were noticing that the rest of their pack were giving them strange looks. Poochyena really didn't care, but the Mightyena were wondering why the pack was looking at them so strange... It's not like they haven't ever seen them before, right?

Treeko rubbed one eye before putting his stick in his mouth. -Look. I don't care if it's my turn to fight, I was in the middle of the most wonderful -- WHAT THE GROUNDON!- Using that ability pokemon have to tell each other apart where humans failed told Treeko exactly who he was looking at. He just couldn't bring himself to believe it!

-Psy? Psy-yi-yi? You look different.-

The Alphas looked at each other, they didn't look any different. Mightyena ♀ shook her head, what was she thinking taking anything that dumb duck said seriously?

-Pikapi! Are you alright!-

Mightyena ♂ replied. -Why wouldn't I be?-

Taillow told himself. -I have got to be dreaming!-

Corsola added to herself. -Then why are we having the same dream?-

-Mistress!- Said Gyrados lowering himself to Mightyena ♀'s level. -What has become of you?-

Staryu and Horsea just looked at each other. At least she could have become a water type.

Phanpy, tackled foreword. -PHAN-PY! You're more like me now! I knew you were my papa!-

Pikachu just thought one thing after hearing his trainer's responce, _I have a very, very, very bad feeling about this._

Mightyena ♂ and Mightyena ♀ were beginning to serious suspect that smoke had driven the rest of their pack crazy.

Poochyena glared at Phanpy, -No, he's MY Dad. You're not even a Dark-Type, let alone a Poochyena!-

Phanpy started to cry into his daddy's front leg.

Mightyena ♀ glared at Poochyena, -Poochyena! He's as much our son as you are, you know.-

Poochyena snorted, -You mean like Togetic was?-

Mightyena ♀ glared at her son. He was just so stubborn! _He must have gotten it from his father's side of the family_. And how DARE he speak about his older brothers in such a way? Especially considering they're much more sensitive than he is.

"Pikaaaaa!" Pikachu yelped. Now he KNEW something was very wrong here!

"Mighty-ya?" Mightyena ♂ glared at his companion more interested in comforting his son over Poochyena's selfish attack than humoring clear insanity.

-Since when is Pika your son? I know PuChu thinks of you like that, and so did Pichupi, but Pika?-

-Since he was born of course.- Mightyena's ♂ patence was wearing thin.

-Pikapi . . you're sick... that smoke turned into a Mightyena!-

-You're the one whose crazy! How could Poochyena be one and Mightyena ♀ be one if I wasn't one!-

-They weren't until just now!-

-You've lost it!-

-Ask the rest of the team, they'll say the same thing! How could we all have the same delusion!-

-How could Poochyena, my mate, and I have the same delusion!-

Pikachu had to admit he was stuck there. Whoever thought that because you were right you'd win the argument was an idiot!

Ignoring Pikachu and Mightyena ♂, Mightyena ♀ looked at Poochyena and barked sternly. -Apologize to your brother. Right now.-

Poochyena walked the short distance between himself and his pack mate and said in a reluctant tone. -I'm sorry. He is as much my dad as yours.-

-And mean it,- She amended.

-I'm sorry.- He said in a realistic tone of growling.

Phanpy seemed satisfied with this and slowly stopped crying.

Pikachu noticed the Badge Case of Ash's which was on the ground, and brought it to Mightyena ♂'s attention, -Pikapi, don't you remember what this is?-

Mightyena ♂ thought for a moment. It did look familiar...

Mightyena ♂ then responded, -I think it's a Badge Case.-

Pikachu smiled for a moment, but then Mightyena ♂ continued, -I guess a human must have dropped it on their way through here-

Pikachu was frustrated. It's like the Smoke reprogrammed their brains as well as their bodies! Pikachu frantically looked around to see if there was anything else of the humans' that survived the transformation. That's when he spotted Dexter and the PokéNav.

_Aha!_, Pikachu thought, as he ran to collect the two devices.

Pikachu dragged along both items to the confused dark types. He flipped Dexter open and it gave the profile on Mightyena and then Poochyena.

-See?- Mightyena ♂ barked.

Pikachu wished this was the old version of Dexter, he knew how to work the index on that one, this was a new model from the one he had seen Prof. Oak use day in and day out in his lab just before meeting Pikapi. As it was Pikachu could not bring up any other of the device's function. Pikachu considered asking Ash about Dexter but knew he'd get the same result. He tried to talk about how the poke Navi was his, but the pup adamently refused to believe it. After all, how could he operate it with his paws?

_Agh! Would it have killed Pikapi to keep ONE telepath in the party? ... Pipikapipi! _

Pikachu called out to the simple minded duck and told him to share his memories with Misty. Then the duck asked what Pikachu was talking about. Save the darks and Psy everyone did an anime fall over. Pikachu forgot the moron only remembered his had psyhic powers when his headache got in the extreme, and only long enough to deliever divine wrath upon the power fools that had given it to him.

Pikachu had learned that the painful way himself.

Maybe twenty questions could still work. Pikachu asked how they met and Pikapi said he had broken him out of a human's pokemon lab... _Oh father Zapdos given me strength._

-What were the rest of the team doing in poke balls then?-

-You tell us how you got in them.-

-Because you're a trainer and you act as the carrier for the rest.-

-I know I let you ride me a lot but I don't know about the rest.-

-Stop trying to mess with Mightyena ♂'s head Pikachu!-, Shouted Mightyena ♀.

-You remember Lugia right?-

-Of course, I was his Chosen One.-, Mightyena ♂ replied, with great honor and dignity.

-Then how can you be a pokemon?-

-Where the heck did it say in the prophecy the Chosen One was a human?-

Pikachu had to admit, it didn't. -How'd you met Pikachupi?-

-We were running from some Spearows... and Mightyena ♀ pulled me out holding onto you thinking we were free food. And she asked about you since you were cuter and I thought she meant me and over reacted--

-I did NOT overreact! You were insenitive.-, Mightyena ♀ complained.

-My foreleg was sentive after you bit me!-

Pikachu asked about the bike. -What bike?- They said together.

-The Bike you owed Pikachupi after he trashed it to get me to the pokemon center!-

-... Now you're just making stuff up.- Mightyena ♂ whinned (equel to sigh) -She came along because the spearow were

dragging behind her cost her meal for the day. Though it did seem a rather stupid excuse.-

Mightyena ♀ blushed.

-When's Pooch coming with the food?- Poochyena moaned. -What's taking him so long?-

Poochyena did have a point, Mightyena ♂ thought. And maybe Might could help put things straight with the rest of the pack.

Pikachu was thinking the exact same thing. What was keeping the walking hormone so long! He could solve this problem instantly since he wasn't near the gas Pikapi couldn't rationalize it like the rest.

Pikachu was suddenly stuck with Inspiration! Why didn't he think about asking this before?

-Why is Brock coming with our 'pack'?-

This left Mightyena ♂ speechless. Why DID Might stay with the pack?

-Because he's the only one who can cook.- Said the Alpha female.

Pikachu smirked, -But then why doesn't he try to capture you? He is a trainer.-

The phrase came right out of Mightyena ♂'s mouth without even thinking. -Some pokemon aren't meant to be captured.-

Pikachu sighed. Pikapi and Pikachupi are making him want to pull his fur out! _This is the most infuriating day of my life... NOTHING can make this worse..._

"Prepare for Trouble, Wherever you are!"  
"And Make it Double, we'll be the stars!"

_...Then again..._

"To protect the world from devistation!"  
"To unite all people within our nation!"  
"To denounce the Evils of truth and love!"  
"To extend our reach to the Stars Above!"  
"Jessie!", shouted the Purplish-Red Haired Rocket.  
"James!", added the Blue haired Rocket.

"Team Rocket! Bla--"

Suddenly, Team Rocket noticed something wrong with this picture...

"What's going on here? Where's the twerp?" Jessie blinked in confusion.

"It does seem a little odd Jess'," James said

"Oh, who cares let's just grab'em all before he comes back!" With that, the rockets pulled out their butterfly nets.

Pikachu snarled. -You moron, have caught me in a very bad mood! I'm not in the mood to play anymore with you today... so say . .. GOOD-BYE!- "PIKAAAA!"

Team Rocket screamed like little girls as the mother of all thunder bolts blasted them.

The blast strikes them and the rockets are sent flying into the sky from the force of the attack as ussual.

"We didn't even finish!"

"Looks like Team Rocket is blasting off again!"

"Wabbaaa..."

Meowth whinned, "THIS IS MY ONLY LIIIIIINE!"

The gang twinkled as they were shot over the horizon.

"Chu..." Pika breathed out. He needed that.

-You think they'd give up by now.- The alpha male moaned. -Now they're making a grab at you, Pikachu, twice a day!-

Brock FINALLY came out of the building. As expected, he had a large red handprint on his face.

-I should have known he really went in there because of a girl...-, Mightyena ♂ thought aloud

"Hey Ash. I'll get you and your friends something to eat now," Brock stated.

Pikachu's jaw dropped. _Brock knows that's Ash, and he's acting like.. he... expected.. it... WHY THAT DIRTY---_!

Neither Pikachu NOR any of Ash nor Misty's Pokémon could believe it. Brock KNEW this would happen?

Brock noticed the other Pokémon glaring at him, "Um... Ash, Misty... get your Pokémon to stop glaring at me like that?"

Corphish wasn't pleased, and looked like he was about to bubble beam Brock into next Thursday.

The only one of the Pokémon who didn't seem to mind was Phanpy, who was cuddling up to his "Daddy" and "Mommy"

-Daddy, why is everyone mad at Uncle Brock?-, Asked Phanpy.

-I'm... not sure...-

Pikachu looked at the rest of the team. -We attack him together on three!-

-Wait!- Mightyena ♀ said. -We can beat him senseless after we eat!-

Poochyena thought that was a very good point.

Brock poured out some pokemon chow and Mightyena ♀ and Mightyena ♂ along with Poochyena instantly began to dig in. Pikachu sweatdropped. He was never that bad. Was he?

The pokemon had already eaten er... the OTHER pokemon had already eaten so it was just the dark types chowing down at the moment. Pikachu knew enough to let wait it out at this point.

Looking at Brock, Pikachu STILL couldn't comprehend how such a close friend had betrayed Ash and Misty like this! Abused their trust and stabbed them in the back!

Pikachu wanted so badly to deep fry him then and there. But he wanted to know what was up first. Could Brock have really been so selfish as to do this to his best friends! At least they still had an ally in May. Once she saw what happened to her little brother she was bound to react!

Pikachu then remembered what she had said earlier...

"I forgot about the Pokémon Contest! I have to go get prepared for it. I'll meet you all at the Pokémon Center, okay?", she had said...

There wasn't even a contest PLANNED for today. Especially not here.

Pikachu shook his head. He had to be imagining things. Nobody could be cruel enough to do that to their own brother, right? And she wasn't mad about the Bike anymore so she wouldn't want to do that to Ash, right? Right, of course. No reason what-so-ever...

Mightyena ♂ too has started to get doubts. What did he mean "your pokémon"? And why was he calling him Ash if he hadn't captured him? Ash was a HUMAN name, after all...

No. He had to be imagining things. There was no way Pikachu could be right. He knew his own mind, he knew who he was. Besides, Mightyena ♀ and Poochyena knew it was true. And he trusted his mate more than anyone else.

"Well Ash." Said Brock after they were done eating. "We better meet May at the pokemon center before she gets to worried."

Brock though personally was surprised Ash hadn't freaked out, nor had demanded why (in english or in pokemon speak) what had happened to him again. Or why Max wasn't looking himself over again and again. Or why Misty wasn't complaing about the loss of her good looks. Maybe they were just perfectly calm that the spell was going to eventually wear off and that would be that.

That reminded Brock. He didn't get an answer for -exactly- how long the spell would last. Oops, oh well, no problem, he would just go back inside and ask again, after all, she had already given her rejection, she wouldn't mind answering a simple question. Brock flashed back to the resurant.

May and Brock were wondering what the heck they were gonna do about the problem with Ash, Misty, and Max not having any food...

May soon brought up what Ash was talking about Earlier. His time as a Pokémon.

Brock explained what happened, and someone had overheard their discussion. She walked up to them and introduced herself as Carrie, a Pokémon Magician. This gave Brock an idea...

Brock flashed out of his flashback...

Brock told the he really would be right back this time ran back inside the house. Knowing that Ash and Misty could keep care of Max and themselves at the moment Pikachu darted in after the traitor. The rotten no good sceaming rat, Pikachu wanted an explaination to what was going on and he wanted it now. He ignored the other pokemon's calls. The place was just as spooky on the inside as on the outside, if a bit more lavish. He followed right behind the rock trainer.

Brock knocked on a door slowly opened it. A female voice on the other side said. "Didn't I tell you to go already? I've done what you wanted now get out!"

"Er ... I know Madam but... I forgot to ask an important question."

"Which was?" The voice snapped.

"When does the spell wear off? I know I asked for an extension but I forgot to ask for how long..."

"You... you meant... you pathetic fool... your friends are destine to be pokemon in mind, body and soul for the remainder of their lives."

In Kanto, Pallet... Deliah pruned some flowers in her garden when she heard a faint "WHAT?"... somewhere to the south west of her . . . naw... had to be her imagination.

Pikachu's ear were never going to stop ringing, he was sure of it. A family of Zubat and Crobat, scattered from the house's attic.

Carrie shook her head. She didn't mean to sound so bitchy, but Brock should have specified what she wanted. She explained that to Brock, but he refused to listen, blaming HER for HIS mistake. Carrie understood that part of the blame was hers, but she didn't think she deserved ALL of it.

_After all, isn't telling a guy two times enough?_, she thought.

Brock continued to blame Carrie for the mistake, even though she had explained to him the spell TWICE before casting it.

Carrie's temper was rising, "Look, I'd help you if I could, but there's no such thing as a reversal spell. What do you think this is, Harry Potter?"

Brock had ticked her off too much tho by this time. As he left, she looked through her spellbook for something that would at least work as an apology to his friends, and a punishment for Brock...

Pikachu's world inverted, turned upside down, and blurred together. Ash. His Ash. Was gone forever? Well, this Mightyena seemed to have Ash's relationship... but... could he really say he was the same person? And even if Ash's memories could be restored ... would it be the kinder thing to do? Trapped in a body that wasn't his? Till the day he died? Would it be kinder instead to just let the Mightyena to remain instead? Rather then an a Ash and Misty would would suffer?

Was the truth really the final liberator? Or would it just weight down Ash and Misty? Sentenced never to be their true selves again... Pikachu shuddered. This had to be a nightmare! Why couldn't he wake up?

Pikapi, his Pikapi... no he wouldn't accept it, he wouldn't believe it! Reason tilted on it's side and Pikachu having not been noticed by Brock bolted through the ajar door. The woman didn't look as ugly as she should have. Witch as a rule should always be ugly. -You! You took Pikapi away from me! I want him back! Give him back right now!-

"...I'm sorry, from what your squinty eyed friend was telling me before, I thought that he had done some great wrong. And I had warned him twice before I actually cast the spell that it would be permanant. I wish he would have listened to me. I can probably get one of your friends to recover their memory automatically, and make it easier to do so for another. But, the little boy, I'm afraid, is going to be stuck thinking he's a Pokémon forever. I'm the neice of a good friend of Professor Oak's, so he should believe me when I tell him what's happened," Carrie explained to the Pikachu

Pikachu thought about this... Even if she was lying about knowing Proffessor Oak, they COULD AT LEAST get help from Mewtwo. Pikachu decided that Ash and Misty regaining their memories would probably be the best thing right now. They could still act as Max's parents, after all, they acted As Togepi's parents for years.

Pikachu sighed. Not really thinking how this witch could understand him to begin with... -What do you want me to do?-

-----------------------------

Brock to say the least was frantic, what would he Mrs. Deliah Ketchem? What would he tell Misty and Max's families! Eccentric guy's traveling compainions just vanish, who'd believe that they had been turned into pokémon? May was going to kill him. If Ash's mom or Misty sisters (okay, scratch the shallow sisters) didn't kill him first! He was dead! Dead! He had as good murdered three of his friends. It would have served him right if he had stayed at Ivy's lab...

What would all his brothers and sisters and parents think when they found out what their elder brother/son had become? He'd be homeless, no girl would ever want to go out with him again! Oh the waste upon women everywhere! Suzie would never look him in the eye again! He was doomed! Doomed! This was his end! And the worest part was what would happen to his friends afterwards. What kind of life would they be able to live? Maybe it was kinder they didn't remember what they had lost. But what would become of them? May barely handed her squad of performers, she couldn't handle two teams of fighters, they would either be captured, or reduced to the lives of petty animals, like any wild pokemon where death was a daily companion. Ash and Misty's team would want his blood, along with others. And once he was dead, they would be killed to as 'rabid' Pokémon. He had destroyed everything around him that he cared about in an attempted to remove a temporary problem! Even all the emotion damage aside, would May even be able to travel on her own?

"Gee... what's taking them so long? I know Ash probably freaked out but I thought he'd have calmed down enough to have been here by now!" May look at the public TV, too bad it wasn't a soap opera like Deep Clafairy Nine. Looked like they were running re-runs of the last Orange Tournament... The station must have been out of money.

Mightyena ♂ wondered where Might was... he wanted to get moving. Traveling and meeting new pokemon and aquiring new pack members was his passion, Might understood that, as did his Alpha Female and his pup. A slight breeze, and something blocked Mightyena ♂'s eyes.

-What's this in my eyes... Mightyena ♀, could you get it off, so I can see it?-, asked Mightyena ♂ to his Alpha Female.

She grabbed the offending object with her teeth, and layed it down in front of him.

It was his cap... Wait-- if caps are made by humans, how is it HIS cap? He tried to think up a logical answer, like he had to all of Pikachu's questions, but there were none. -Pikachu was... right?-

Memories flooded Mightyena ♂'s mind...

Recieving Pikachu, Dexter, and the Pokéballs from Proffessor Oak...

Being saved by the flock of Spearow by Misty...

The gym battles, Brock's reasons for following, everything...

He also remembered Max, who his newly sharpened sights allowed him to tell was the Poochyena...

He was Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, son of Deliah and Giovanni Ketchum, Chosen One, and Champion of the Orange League.

Smiling to himself, Ash asked Mightyena ♀, who he now knew was Misty, to put the cap back on his head. She was confused, but did so anyway.

Mightyena ♀ looked at Mightyena ♂... _What was he smiling about?_ One thing she was sure of was that she didn't like the look in her mate's eyes. ꥀ

"Mightyena ♂ ? .. . are you okay?" He had that hat since she had first met him, she had never bothered to ask where he got it. But he had looked at it like he had never seen it before in his life. Maybe the smoke was starting to drive him crazy now after all. She drew Poochyena closer to her for protection.

-Mightyena ♀, what's wrong?-, asked Mightyena ♂

-You... you're . . . are... just the look on your face... you didn't seem yourself there.-

-What? I was smiling. Can't I do that every now and then?-

-I guess... but your hat... the look in your eyes. You looked like you had never seen it before. You've always had that hat.-

-But how did I get it?-

-You never told me.-

Poochyena looked at his two parents, not sure what was going on just knowing he was confused.

-No I haven't always had it. I used to have a different one. Remember? When we seperated for a while?-

-... I... I remember, just before we had Poochyena... -

A voice in the back of Ash's head asked. _Do you really want her to remember? Do you really want to remember? Isn't it better to just march foreword with nothing holding you back?_

Ash thought of his mother, he'd never be able to hug her again and Misty's sisters, he'd never able to prove herself to them and... if they forgot . . they'd never be able to say good-bye.

Ash decided to continue, as he really didn't want to be this way alone, -Think, how old is Poochyena?-

-About 8, why?-

-We haven't even known each other that long, we only met 4 years ago.-

Mightyena ♀ thought about it... He's right. They only met four years ago, in Route 1.

Mightyena ♀ could vaguely remember years where 3 girls were treating her terribly... Sisters?

But... those girls... were they Mightyena... or were they... what else could they be! But... Mightyena ♂ shook he head, her own her own mind but... no! There were no buts! She knew she was Poochyena's mother! If she wasn't then who was she! As a mother pokémon her life was defined by her child and her mate. Her future lay in her offspring. Hald her memories told her everything was all right, the other half told her nothing was alright.

Mightyena ♀ shook her head

The other pokemon who had just been looking at each other and wondering how they could get back their nests (for some whom were on the other side of the ocean) or just settle down where they were, or maybe get May to send to Prof. Oak and settle in there, saw the change in Ash's behavor and saw the look of confusion being born on Mightyena ♀'s face.

Treeko and Horsea looked at each other, from the way Ash was asking questions, they knew at least their Ash was back... now they had to do the same for Misty. Horsea moved the best she could (she was a water monster after all, being on the ground was missery to her) she told Misty's other monsters to bombard her with as many questions as they could think of. And they came at an invading army at the castle of Mightyena ♀ to rescue Princess Misty who still dwelled within.

-How'd we first meet?-, Corsela chirped.

-Why did I have to use picture to tell you about Tentacruel when we first met?-, Horsea questioned.

-Why were you scared to death of me at first? Why'd you decide to face your fears and tame me Mistress?-, growled Gyarados.

-Er... whatever they said...-, added Psyduck.

The heroes invaded the castle walls, the enemy troops falling down before their heroic assualt. The princess in her pitch black cell began to hear the faint sounds of battle.

To Mightyena ♀ the house of mirror twisted... wrapped...until... they shattered... !

Mightyena ♀, or rather, Misty, was starting to become aware again, -A-Ash? What happened?-

Ash smiled at Misty, -Welcome back, Misty.-

Poochyena looked baffled, -What are you talking about, Dad?-

_D'oh!_, Ash had forgotten about Max. And it seems that Max may be too far gone to even remember his former life. He was, after all, exposed to the smoke for a longer period of time than either Ash or Misty.

Looking at each other, Ash & Misty decided that, even if it was possible to return Max's mind to normal, he's a bit too young to handle being stuck as a Pokémon. The two nodded at each other simultaniously, and then Ash turned to Poochyena.

-Nothing, Son. It's nothing.- Ash suddenly realized something, -Say, where did Pikachu go, anyway?-

Treecko spoke up, -Pikachu was chasing Brock back into that creepy house-

Misty wondered why Brock'd go back in... Suddenly, it hit her like a ton of bricks. _Why that! He's behind what happened to us!_

Ash had realized this too, but put a paw on his "mate's" shoulder, and shook his head. He decided to give Brock time to explain his actions, so, they waited.

-Better question...- began Poochyena. -What's taking him so long? This time he promised that he'd come right out... It's not like Pooch to over estimate things like that, he knows how to be precise and effective.-

Ash and Misty looked at each other. That was Max, he was have been painted by numbers colored a Poochyena... but the kid who was too smart for his age was still there. At least that was one good compensation... now that just needed to figure out how to explain this disaster to May. And May's family.

-----------

Earlier...

"This will only work if the subject is willing."

Pikachu looked past current trespasses, and rememebered the Brock he knew to be the real one. -He'll be willing.- He said to the witch.

"Alright then . . . Gastly, Misdrevious, Unown, Absol... leaned me your attention... you, those who stand between the two worlds, this place that exists in transit, and the one that has always been, I ask upon you this favor, in exchange I offer that of equal value... hear my bargain, and carry my message, so the transaction may be complete... "

Brock stopped in his tracks, before he even had a chance to leave the building... Something was holding him in place!

Suddenly, wind seemed to surround Brock. So much, in fact, that it became opaque... Brock did the one thing that anyone would do in this situation. Scream.

And the scream simply turned off. Brock had lost the power to even work his lungs. His legs and arms all hupted to, all straight at his sides, he felt like a pencil. Great. Now what was going to happen?

There was no logic when it came to magic.

Calculating of propabilities was even more impossible since the were so many branches of it.

Therfore making any sort of prediction or preset action for the resolution of the situation was pointless and a waste of run time ;

Logically: the only course of action was idle until the situation involving magic was run to it's conclusion ;

Secondary check of motor functions

Leg (r) : no connection

Leg (l) : no connection

arm (r) : no connection

arm (l) : no connection

If no connection in motor fuction is made go to idle ;

10: idle ;

20: set time to 0 ;

30:

40: add one to time

50: if time is greater than 60 go to 30 ;

60: if time 60 go to motor functions check

70: go to 30 ;

time 60

go to motor functions check

00: Motor fucntions check

10: tail connected

20: leg (r) connected

30: leg (l) connected

40: head connected

50: If connected greater than 4 go to 00 ;

60: if connected 4 end idle

end idle ;

run bootup2.exe

Porygon ver. 2.0

Copyright Syphco. Inc 2038

Run time: Y 18 Mon 7 D 01 H 14 Min Sec 2 M.S. .47

memory load... wait...

Memory loaded.

Operating System BrSl Ver. 18.7 loading...

OS Loaded

If 'Magic' less than 1 go to Idle ;

If 'Owner' is not input range Run ownerlocate.exe ;

loading ownerlocate.exe ;

Owner Perameters loaded determine location and project most direct rough at less than .50 poke dollars worth of any property damage.

Pikachu bid farewell to Carrie, and ran through the house. He could tell Brock had already made his exit... _Hoo-boy... I'm gonna have some explaining to do, aren't I?_, he thought bitterly.

Pikachu ran out the door, and found Brock, now Porygon2.exe , making his way towards Ash & the rest of the gang. Pikachu swiftly ran out in front, and smiled as he saw what seemed to be a mentally revitalized Ash & Misty.

Pikachu was extremely happy, as the spell seemed to have worked. Running up to Ash, he immedately tackled him.

-WHOA! Pikachu, what was that for?-, Ash said, smiling.

-You're BACK Pikapi! You're BACK!-

-Yeah, Misty too... We decided to let Max stay the way he is mentally - because he's only 8, so it would really be hard for him to take.-

Pikachu remained silent at that. Should he tell Ash & Misty that the Max Ruby they knew was gone for good?

-Who's that?-, Ash Barked as he saw the Porygon2 show up.

Pikachu grinned -Brock.-

Ash noticed Brock's belt of Pokéballs, were still on him... Maybe they should be released into "the Pack" too?

Brock's now digital voice asked, -What is your command?-

Everyone blinked for a moment, taking this in...

-Umm... Release your Pokémon-, Ash barked, somewhat unsure himself of what was going on.

Foretress, Mudkip, and Lotad were all released.

The two water and one steel/bug pokémon took one at their trainer and all had one thing to say. -What the flipping heck is going on?- -Yikes!- -Ayé Carumba!- Okay, not exactly the same thing, but the same feeling. Wanting to know exactly what was going on!

-Pikachu... what's going on?-

Pikachu decided to leave out some details... -When Brock found out the spell was perminant-- Everyone gasped at this, except Porygon2.exe. -Brock volenteered to give up his human self and form, to give you two back your real memories... -

Poochyena couldn't fathom what was going on the slightest, and he didn't like that, period. -What?-

Misty thought fast. -Son... go play with Phanpy.-

-Mom?-

-Please.-

The puppy reluctantly did as he was told.

Misty looked back at Pikachu... -But it was Ash's cap and our friends who snapped us out of it...-

-Ash's hat and the rest of us wouldn't have been able to without Carrie's spell... that was the witch who lives here who Brock dealed with . . . he didn't pay full attention on her words when she told him the conditions that the spell would have.-

-Brock...- Misty said to herself. Porygon2.exe didn' react to the name at all.

-So what do we do now?- Corphish muttered.

-May.- Misty breathed. -Someone needs to tell her about Max... she'll be heart broken.- Misty couldn't stand her sisters... but she still couldn't bear the idea of them being... snuffed out.

Everyone looked at each other. No one wanted this job.

-Uh... how are we going to get into town without being caught by trainers?- Ash asked the obviou question that had illuded everyone else.

-I wanna have a word with this witch... if she helped Brock cause all of this... - Treeko muttered. -Then she can at least help us get out of it...-

Ash's team (minus Phanpy who was still playing with his 'big brother' ) unamiously agreed. Misty's team followed suit. Brock's team was still mourning over the loss of their leader.

The group of Pokémon entered the creepy house, knowing now that it's safe at least.

Pikachu knocked on Carrie's door, -Miss Carrie, we umm... Need just a LITTLE More help.-

The Woman opened the door, "What is it you need?"

-We need a way to get to the Pokémon center without being caught by trainers.-

"Oh, I forgot about that. I'll let Espeon join you as a parting gift. She'll be able to get you there with her 'teleport' move."

"Espion!" Carrie called, a violet fur eevee evolution appeared in a white silolite out of nowhere.

"_Yes my lady?"_ She said with telepathy.

"You have served me without question since I found you half dead at my door step after your evolve at dawn a few second before you did and turned on you... "

"_My life belongs to you."_

"These are the final commands you are to obey from. Good with Ash's team. You are to serve him as part of that team. Teleport him and his pack safely to the roof top of the nearest pokemon center. Do this, and you are no longer within my service."

Espeon bowed. _"I'll do as you command my lady..."_ Everything went white for everyone.

"Location error: Resetting perameters." Said Porygon2.exe as the teleportation ended. Ash did see indeed they were back at the pokemon center.

Poochyena and Phanpy who had been outside the window playing were stunned at the sudden turn of venues.

-So whose gonna do it?- Misty asked the ultimate question again.

Pikachu sighed. -Hey Espion. Teleport May to the roof with us.-

Espio read the rodent's mind for a mental imprint of the girl he was thinking out and As you ask. In a white silolit May found herself on the roof top. She screamed and quickly put her top shirt back on. She had just begun undressing for a shower.

"Wha! What's going on!... Pikachu? Gyrados! Fortress! What's going on!"

Espio looked at Poochyena and used Hypnosis... strange how it worked on a dark type, the puppy was out, he didn't need to hear this.

Espion translated Misty's words. -May... -

"M-Misty? I know you're mad maybe but it's just-"

-It isn't, we're stuck like this forever.-

May paled and took a dangerous step towards the edge of the roof. "I didn't know... it's not possible... I didn't know... Brock said it was... Max!"

"He's gone... he doesn't remember anything about who he used to be..."

May's eyes became saucers and she blinked away tears. "No... no!"

May fell to her knees. "No..." She began to sob. "I... I... no!" She pounded a first on the roof top. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for any of this to happen! I didn't mean it! I'm sorry! Make it all go away! Jirachi! Celebi! Mew! Make it all go away!" She ranted or prayed depending on your point of view.

May began to hiccup.

Any low thoughts Misty had for May were buried under an avalance of pity... this girl... she had walked in the dark... not knowing what was really there... she might have written this book too... but it had been forced writing in it's own way...

Misty found herself nuzzling the suffering child

"Dad didn't want me before... . now that Max is gone he won't want me again... I'm not his pokemon trainer... I'm not his gym leader... "

May was breaking down and her person demons were coming to the surface.

"I'm not his heir... I'm not his anything... "

"Max . . . I'm just so sorry... " May couldn't bring herself to say good-bye.

Ash decided it was his turn to speak, again translated by Espion...

-As... a friend of mine once learned, May, It's better to say goodbye, than to never be.-

"What's that supposed to mean?"

-It means that no matter what happens, you should continue on with your life. And from what I saw, your father, Norman, doesn't hate you. He cares for you greatly.-

"You don't KNOW what it's like to have a father that you can't relate to!", May shouted.

That stung Ash. In fact, he does know. After all, how could the Chosen One relate to the leader of Team Rocket? But, he had buried the memories of what his father had done to him deep in his mind... _Do I dare say anything?_

A voice from no where and everywhere+

_  
To dare is to live.  
_

-May... - At least? No, for once Ash thought ahead. -Your father was there for you. He's always been there for you. I know what it's like to have a father you've always looked up to, yet seems like you can never touch him, so you try your hardest, yet it never seems to be enough.-

"That's just it... I never tried... I just went along with being a trainer so I wouldn't make a big fuss . . . I figured since the contests involved pokemon, and seems to have more a calling to me... I thought that would satisfy dad... but he's always wanted an heir. Someone to carry on the name. Someone to carry on in -his- shoes since mom it was always assumed had the inside track with me... but I just wanted to see the world... pokemon always scared me to pieces before my journey... even the ones my dad trained... "

-Regardless of anything else May. Your family does love you. They supported you when you chose to be an entertainer rather than a fighter... and they'll support you now... -

"What I've done to Max, there is no comparison... I can't lie to my own family... no matter how easy that would be... "

-You still love them.-

"Did you ever stop loving that impossible to reach dad of yours?"

-No... in spite of everything, no matter how hard I tried... I couldn't stop loving him... maybe that love turn from what it used to be... but it never goes away.-

"And this guilt, this crime I've commited... will never go away... Maybe I should just get rid of the person who was so stupid and selfish she murdered her own brother by accident!"

May looked at the roof top.

-May no! Don't you dare give up! There are other ways for that person to away than killing yourself... you can change... just ask yourself this one question. Whose life are you leading? Your dad's? Or your own?-

_... Maybe..._ May thought. _I can live the life I've robbed the world of... Max... you wanted to learn as much as you could... and become a Master... maybe I can walk that path... contests... what the point of winnign of there's no one there to cheer for you at the end?_

May clenched her hands. May then turned to the others and said, "I'm... I'm gonna try to become a Pokémon Master, or at least a Gym Leader like my dad. Being a Coordinator is no good without your friends and family. And now I've lost both."

Everyone looked at her like she lost her mind... Wait... Did she have one before?

-You sure this is what you want to do?-

"Positive!"

-If that's your own choice...- Misty said to herself.

May knew there was something else she had to say. "Ash . . you knew all along right?... I did... I really did... I honestly do love you."

Ash fell over. -GAH!-

May made the smallest laugh possible... that was indeed the Ash she had fallen in love with.

Misty said nothing, but inched closer to Ash, that spoke volumes to May. She knew her chances with Ash had dropped to zero... but she had to say it... at least let him know...

After a few uncomfortable seconds of silence, Pikachu spoke up, -You think you can survive without us?-

May rolled her eyes. Well, it's now obvious why Pokémon and humans can't normally communicate.

May's pokeballs burst open on their own, Skitty, Beautifly, Torchic.

They all looked at her in disbelief at what she had just said.

-May... you really mean that?- Said Torchic.

"I'm sorry guys... the performance is over... now the fighting starts."

The three entertainers looked at each other at this new road their team leader was taking them. Beautifly and Skitty looked at each other... the idea of giving up show biz just didn't feel right to them... Toruchick on the other hand, was already ready to follow May to the ends of the earth, regardless of the road.

Misty smiled, -Who knows, maybe you'll meet a guy out there.-

"Maybe..." May replied.

---------  
Meanwhile, in New Bark Town...

"Whoa!"

"You okay Brendon, dear?"

"I'm just fine, mom. I felt a chill for a second."

---------

"I have just ONE more question..."

-Yeah?-

"How are we gonna get down?"

-Leave that to Espion.-

The telepath pokemon nodded.

_I'll just tell dad the truth... Max, Brock, Ash, Misty... are gone because of my stupidty... I spent our food money on clothes... . and they made the sacrifice for me..._, May thought. She didn't know what wrath her father would inflict upon her, but she would take it like a woman.

Ash & Misty looked at each other. Yes, it was pretty much all her fault, but they had to take pity on her. She lost her dream so she could continue with Ash & Max's Dream of being the best. Part of them told them that she deserved it for what she had caused to happen, but the other part of them told them that it was more Brock's fault than hers, so she should get off lighter than that. Knowing Ash and May's Families, she'd get off with much worse.

May looked at the others. "So where do you guys go from here? Back home to your families? Ash? Misty?"

Ash thought for a bit and smiled as only he could, -I've got something in mind.-

Misty blinked for a moment before realizing what Ash is talking about, -You mean...?-

Ash nodded, -First stops, we pick up our Pokémon, then we go somewhere where you'll probably never hear from us again May.-

"Where?" She had to ask.

-'He' would probably kill you if I told you.-

That was all May needed to be told about the subject.

-May.- She looked at Skitty and Beutifly. -We've talked it over and . .. we want to join Drew's team.-

It was a knife though the heart. "What!"

-We're sorry, but I don't think we can just start fighting for it's own sake.-

May fought back the tears this time. "All of you think this . . . "

-I'm staying by your side May... one of us has to... we're partners or aren't we?-

"Yea . . . we are," May whispered, "Thanks Torchic."

Ash winced, HE had felt that blow and it wasn't even directed towards him.

-If you guys really think he's going to stop dotting over Rosella long enough to notice you go ahead.- Said Treeko just because he felt fools deserved a little warning.

May's Pokémon were quite sure he would eventually, I mean, nobody can do anything with just ONE pokémon, right?

Treeko shrugged. Their loss.

Espion was about to teleport everyone away, but May stopped him, "Stop!"

-What?-

"Couldn't you at first get me off this thing?"

The esper pokemon nodded at the request and teleported May and Torchie back to the pokemon center below them. "Skitty, my Wrumple, Ash... Max... good-bye."

Because Ash and Misty were darkness monster now, Espion has to read Pikachu's mind to teleport where they wanted to go . . or rather, as far as they could go... they ended up at the city limits.

-Espion what happened?-

"_I am sorry Master... I am not a Legendary... I have limits on my power and range . ."_ Ash guessed that made sense, otherwise Espion and other phyic pokemon would have completely undermined the entire travel industry.

Several days later via teleportations and rest stops in hiding and on Gayrados over bodies of water (they should have kept their poke ball with them!)

-Finally... Home...-, Ash panted... It had been a long time since they've been to Pallet Town. This is the first time he ever saw it at Pokémon-Eye View. He and the others snuck into the backyard of Proffessor Samuel Oak, and searched for Ash's Pokémon, Phanpy leading the way, because he could tell the Ash's Pokémon from the others the easiest.

It took a while, considering the size of Samuel's Backyard, and the sheer number of Pokémon. But FINALLY, Phanpy encountered a familiar face. Bulbasaur!

-Hey kid. So 'daddy' decided you need some time away from the battle scene?-

-No! Daddy's here!-

-But I haven't heard anything about that new tournament of his being won or lost yet... -

-Daddy's like us now.-

-Kid. He was already a male.-

-No I mean daddy's a pokémon now.-

-... I never dreamed Ash was into cosplay...-

-What's cosplay?-

-That's where you dress up as something you really like.-

-But daddy isn't dressed in anything anymore.-

Bulbasaur sweat dropped. The tyke had gotten hit in the head, he was sure.

-Okay. Lead me to dadd-,ugh, I mean Ash, this I have got to see.- Some would question this, but they would think the wrong thing.

Phanpy lead Bulbasaur not too far from the other Pokémon. Bulbasaur's jaw litterally dropped when he saw Ash & Misty as Mightyena, -ASH?-

Ash chuckled, -Heya, Bulbasaur.-

Bulbasaur blinked, -Okay, this HAS to be a put on, where's the camera?-

-Nope. Be nice if it was tho, because the look on your face is classic.-, Ash barked.

Misty couldn't help but snicker at how Bulbasaur was looking.

However, Poochyena was confused, -Mommy? Who's that?-

One of Bulbasuar's eyes 'crossed' while the other one kept staring straight ahead.

"Saur." Then half his legs went out from his under him and the dino plant fell halfway on his side.

_Ash is now a Pokémon and has a pup... check please... I'm ready to go back into my poke ball now..._

-Wow, a Knockout without even trying, Ash-, Pikachu quipped.

-Hey!... It isn't like that's going to keep happening.-

Five Minutes Later

"Mmuuuuuk!" The purple blob of toxic sludge's eyes rolled into the back of his head, his body mass spreading limply out, killing the grass underneath him.

-And another Knockout!- PIkachu cheerred grinning like a Meowth.

Ash sighed. He should have known this was gonna happen.

Misty chuckled as she shook her head. Ash's Pokémon are all weird.

-Can someone scoop up Muk before he reaches the drinking water?-

-Muk, Snap out of it!-, Ash barked.

Muk quickly 'stood' up at attention and smirk, -Sir, yes sir!-

Misty looked at Espion. -He makes any sudden move, Psy-Beam'em.-

"_Yes Mistress."_

-Not Mistress, just Misty.-

"_Yes Misty."_

-HEY!-, Muk... 'glubbed', -Can't I even get my usual hug?-

Ash glared, -As a human, it didn't hurt. Like this, I'd probably get smothered.-

Muk sighed, -Good point-

-Where're the others, anyway?-

Muk listed off the top of his head, -Totodile is dancing near the drinking water, Bayleef is pining over you not wanting her-

Misty smirked at that.

-Cyndiquil is sunbathing...-

-Didn't know she liked doing that.-, Ash murmered.

-Noctowl & Snorlax are sleeping, Kingler is with the Professor, Heracross is chowing down, and the Tarous are Lugia knows where.-

Muk then remembered something, -Oh, and Squirtle came back while you were away.-

-WHAT? What about the squirtle squad?-

-One of the others finally got the hang of it.-

-I'm stunned.- Said Bulbasaur.

-But wouldn't you know about Squrtle too? I mean, besides Pikachu and Charizard, he's your best friend,- Misty asked

-No. I meant Muk actually remembering all of that.-

-Hey!- The poison type said to the grass type. -Are you calling me stupid?-

-You said it, not me.-

-Can't I even get my usual hug?-

... Over the next several minutes...

"Quill." The flames on her back poofed up as she fell on her back rigid.

"Tota." The Bellosom in a gator's body's jaw dropped followed by the rest of him.

Heracross looked at the jar of sap he had been drinking from, and threw up behind.

-Noctowl isn't lifting an eye lash until sundown, without any battles to fight he said he wanted to get back to his normal sleeping patterns.- Said Bulbasaur. -And Snorlax just ate yesterday so he'll be out for a day or two more.-

-Oh.- Said Bulbasaur. -If you're wondering what Mukk didn't know, the Tauros are all busy trying to win the love of Gary's Milktank.-

Now it was Ash's turn to fall over.

-My love! Now we can be together!- Bayleef tackled Ash to the ground the moment she saw him. -Let us commence with the build of the future!-

-Daddy who is this?- Misty had left Poochyena see just this one for just this reason, revenge was sweet.

Bayleef finally noticed Misty and Poochyena . . . got off Ash, dug a hole in the ground, dove her head inside, and screamed at the top of her lungs.

-Why'd you do that?-

-Oh, just something I wanted to do for some time-

Some diglett and dugtrio that belonged to another trainer came out of the ground, their 'ears' ringing from the loud scream.

Misty chuckled, -Well, Do we try to sneak Klinger out or do we leave him with the Professor?-

-You do that, we don't wanna leave anyone behind . . I gotta . . go talk to mom...-

Everyone was silent for a moment.

-Ash, are you sure?-

-...No, but I have to. I have to say my goodbyes.-

Ash crawled under the gate the same way he got in, and swiftly ran to his Mom's House.

Ash pawed at the door.

The door opened up to reveal Delia's pokemon and house keeper Mimey. The clown looked at Ash and tried to shoe it away using his broom before it got it's muddy feet inside the house, when it just kept coming back, the mime used panta mime to create another door. Ash stopped for a moment, then his instincts asked him why he was stopping, oh yea, he was a dark type, psyhic powers and such weren't even in the same plane of reality as him. Ash walked through the invisible door as if it wasn't even there (yes that was supposed to make sense). Mimey, being from Kanto, didn't know about dark types all that well was was stunned silent. He knocked in his invisible creation to make sure it was still there. Pata-miming a lasso he tried to snag the wild pokemon that way. It went right through him and wrapped around a lamp shade instead and pulled it off the table at the clown who barely caught it. Still not accepting the possibility that this pokemon was somehow immune to his trick, he acted out panting something on the floor. The dog walked across that part of the floor with no problem. Mimey followed only to slip on his imaginary greese.

(Authors' Note: This next part is borrowed from Dragoness' legendary fanfiction series.)

-Mom!- Ash shouted, only now remember that humans don't understand pokemon normally unless they had been 'partner' for quite some time. What had be been thinking?

"What?" Mom came out slipping on the same visualized greese Mr. Mime hadn't stopped thinking about yet and fell on her back, contrary to stereo-types, she didn't shatter.

Ash realized this had been a mistake and had made the decision to leave before his mom saw him but it was too late. She got up, and took one look at him and said. "Ash? Ash honey?... No... but . . "

-Mom?- Ash barked in shock.

"It ... it is you..."

-You... you understand me?-

"How can any mother... not understand her own son?"

-------------------------

Back in Hoenn. With the help of Nurse Joy, May transfered her other two pokemon to Drew's storage box. She had changed her attire slightly, her phanny pack and bandani were green now, a slight change was always good.

She and Torchic were getting ready to leave when Nurse Joy asked about all her packages... "I don't care." She didn't wait for an answer as she left.

---------------------  
Again, back in Kanto, Ash had just finished a discussion with his mother about what all had happened. She had promised to keep it a secret from his father as long as possible.

Ash had soon joined the others, where a recovering Kingler and a happy Squirtle were there to meet him.

-Hey, Boss! Misty told us about what happened,- Squirtle said, still smiling.

-You seem cheerful. You're telling me you didn't faint?-

-After what happened with Lugia? Not much could surprise me, Boss.-

-Well, I sure as Kyogre was,- exclaimed Kingler, -At LEAST they could have turned you into something more CHEERFUL looking.-

Ash had a few more hours until nightfall. The question is, how to stick around without being thought of as strays.

Thankfully, since Oak's reserve had every pokemon under the sun, they had to pretty much just hang out and no one noticed anything was amiss from a few extra pokemon.

When Noctowl opened his eyes: his first words were. -I hate things I can read the mind of.-

Mightyena looked at each other. That was easy.

-This reunion is nice, and everything Ash.- Said Squrtle. -But what are you going to do now? You wanted us all together to tell us at once, so whatcha have to say?-

-Well, it looks like our journey is over. Since I'm not a human anymore, I can't safetly take you all anywhere. And this spell was apparently permanant, thanks to Brock.-, Ash said, growling at Porygon2.exe

-PERMANANT?-, all of the Pokémon shouted at once.

-I've decided that we shall end up staying with Mewtwo from now on. It's safe there, and his Psychic powers will make sure that nobody finds out about this arrangement,- Ash barked.

The Pokémon nodded in agreement.

Poochyena was confused, -Daddy, Mommy? Who's "Mewtwo"?-

-I wanna know too!-, Phanpy chipped in

-Mewtwo is an old friend of your Daddy's,- Misty explained to the children.

Espeon explained, _"Now, I can't get you all there at once, but all I really need is a few for now, and then Mewtwo can help get the rest. Who volunteers?"_

Squrtle, Bulbasaur, and Cydaquill stepped up.

Espion looked into Pikachu's mind for the location of MewTwo's hiding place and began the leap frog teleportation.

Mewtwo spoke up _"Is that who I think it is?"_

Ash scratched his head with his hind leg and chuckled, -Yeah, it's me... Umm... Surprise?-

All of the Pokémon who were cloned from ones that Belonged to Ash and Misty, except the Pikachu and Squirtle clones, fainted.

-Gee, this is a familiar scene,- Bulbasaur quipped. Everyone glared at him. -What? These copy cats fainted just the guinen articles did. Except mine is clearly a faded trace over.-

Squirtle rolled his eyes, -Yeah right! Yours is the most accurate!-

-Why you!- Said Bulbasuar's clone shaking it off.

-Wanna a re-match faker?-

"_Enough."_ Spoke MewTwo forcefully. _"Why are you here Ashura?"_

-Me and my pokemon... wish to stay... -

"_What? And what is this?"_

"_Allow me to share my memories..."_ Said the phsyhic eevoltuion.

The two pokemon locked minds... a minute of staring later, the link ended.

"_Ash . . you are welcome to stay as long as you wish... but may you find a new place in the outside world some day as some of my copies were able to."_

-Uh. Thanks.- Ash replied.

Espion was near exhastion with the repeated teleportations that followed. MewTwo offered to take over near the end and the violet cat accepted easily.

Time passed, as time always does.

Although it was hard to get adjusted to being Pokémon, Ash & Misty did a pretty good job with Mewtwo's help. Along with Poochyena and Phanpy, Ash and Misty ended up having a litter of Poochyena as children in the years that came...

Pikachu and the Other Pokémon remained an active part of Ash & Misty's lives, and Porygon2.exe still could cook up a good meal - which made him an asset even to Mewtwo, who hadn't had professionally cooked meals since he had fallen out of Giovanni Ketchum's good graces.

Pikachu was more or less the pups' uncle, as well as one of the Pokémon that defended Mewtwo's spot. He and his clone were an unstoppable force when it came to protecting the mountain hideaway.

Bulbasaur was pretty much the "Babysitter" and Peacekeeper - although he often had fights himself with his clone.

Squirtle worked with his clone and the duo of Pikachu to protect the mountain. However Squirtle was more into stopping fires that began. He worked on training his clone and the other Water Pokémon in the art of firefighting.

Totodile had eventually impressed the Wigglytuff clone enough to actually score. Some things are more shocking than others, apparently.

Mukk became the resedent garbage disposal... being made out of toxic slime had some advantages, while it did limit his swiming privligies.

The Tauros it was found simply couldn't handle confinment and soon left the scantium for greener pactures and lovely Miltanks. Also, one of them was left behind as it had won Gary's Miltank's heart.

After a few years, Bayleef got over Ash, and instead went to someone more her style.. the Bulbasaur clone.

Snorlax it was found didn't really seem to care, he was still getting free food out of the situation after all.

Noctowl dared the impossible, and began challenging MewTwo to chess! Of course he had to first teach the clone how to play (what a mistake that was)

Kingler missed Professor Oak, so he had Mewtwo Teleport him back to the lab.

Phanphy was soon in the role of older brother to the litter and found himself the role model for them.

Misty's Pokémon loved the serene water on the mountain. In fact, Psyduck had finally evolved into a Golduck.

Heracross had many opponents, and alot more tree sap. He was in heaven!

Brock's Pokémon returned to Pewter City to be with Brock's brother, who was training to be the Gym Leader.

As for May...

She met a young man named Brendon Birch...

...And another story began...

The End...

Epilouge:

Sammy snuck away from his brothers and sisters as they wrestled each other. The pup looked up at the ceiling and wondered... Was the moon papa and mama described shining tonight? Maybe... He would find out for himself.

...Is A New Beginning


	4. Shellshocked

Pokémon Transformation Chronicals

Story #4: Shellshocked

Author Notes: The Author of this particular part would like to remain anyonomus... or however it's spelled.

---------------

The desert was too hot for Ash's liking.

_I've been stuck in this stupid place for days, he thought. I'm not even sure which way I'm headed anymore. The stupid sandstorms. The freezing nights. Stupid climate here's like a seesaw. I'm going to get myself killed out here. Can't I just turn back?_

He shook his head, his friends, Brock and Misty, immediately appearing in his thoughts. They were laying there with green looks to their faces and clearly struggling to talk. They had contracted some disease thanks to another one of Team Rocket's plans. This time, though, it had been almost too successful. Only quick work by Ash and Pikachu had stopped them from being able to kill outright, and what's more, it was only sheer luck, Ash remembered painfully, that had stopped him from catching it too. There wasn't any cure - they didn't even know what the disease was.

"There's only one choice", Misty had told him, through cracked lips and coughing fits. "A place in the desert near here. It's at least several days away, but I remember hearing about a professor who might have the knowledge to save us. He stays right in the middle of it. He's eccentric, obviously."

Her frankness hurt him. She wasn't providing any comfort. It was possible they could die. With no other help available for so many miles it was the best chance they had. It was obvious, from their looks and lack of strength, that they needed help quickly. Ash was the only one well enough to go, despite Misty's protests, insisting that she came too, over time it had become clear that neither her or Brock could accompany Ash on the trek. To make matters worse, in case Team Rocket were to return and try to finish the job and kill them completely, Pikachu would have to stay behind. He wasn't ill and was the only other person who could protect them capably.

Ash remembered shivering at the idea. Pikachu had almost always stuck by his side and he didn't want to separate from his most beloved Pokémon without a good reason. Still, Pikachu himself had said it. This was a good enough reason. Better that they didn't ask for more.

After a day or so of hesitation, and finally, after Pikachu, Misty and Brock's protests, Ash had set out. It really was their only hope - he had waited for a while in vain, praying for some other solution to become clear. But once he finally understood that waiting was slimming their chances of a recovery even further, he wasted no more time. He stood up, wished them well, and, taking as precious much supplies that he could (Misty and Brock needing all the food and water they could get) set off through the forest to the foreboding desert.

And here he was now. Under the beating sun. On some stupid sand dune that looked the same as any other.

So it was clear to him. He couldn't just turn back. That would be a complete failure. And, still, he thought, he had some of his most trusty Pokémon with him. Despite the heat and thirst that was beginning to pound down upon his constitution, they still didn't fail to make him smile. Sometimes. There was still plenty of chance. That, he thought, expression suddenly determined, he would do anything for his friends. After all, they had got him out of way too many situations before. He'd keep going - and that was that.

Several hours passed, the sun now high in the sky, and despite all his determination it was only a little longer before he found himself parched and collapsing. He kept getting back up but after a while it was becoming futile - his particular penchant for food had made run his supplies out too fast. Even if he had been conservative, it would've bought him only a few extra hours. That, though, was a meagre comfort. Vague hallucinations that were beginning to peek on the corners of his mind. Soon enough Ash's thirst was stopping him from thinking of anything else. There obviously wasn't any water in the desert. He smiled a little thinly. He knew that much.

Soon a solution came to himself. Squirtle! Squirtle was a water type. Heck, he was practically water. Wasting no time scrabbling at his Pokeballs he soon had Squirtle standing out in front of him, looking at his trainer concernedly. It took Squirtle a mere glance around to see exactly what was going to be asked of him. Immediately he took a step back from Ash.

"Water," Ash said quietly, unable to speak any louder.

Squirtle stood there for a moment, blinking. He came forward reluctantly, almost torturously slow for Ash. He tried pointing in the distance, trying to divert Ash's attention anywhere but him.

"Oh, not now, please don't do this right now," Ash said, groaning desperately. "I need water now. Come on. You've got some, right?" he said, voice lowering as it seemed that he had might not.

Squirtle nodded some. Of course he had. He just didn't want to give it to Ash.

"Look," Ash said, unable to be nice in what was a bad situation. "Just give me some water."

That was a direct request. And no matter how strangely reluctant Squirtle was to do whatever Ash asked, he had to do it. His loyalties were too deeply imbued in him to counter a direct, heartfelt request. And, well, Ash really was in trouble. Ash held out a jug. A few moments later, with his reluctant cooperation, it was full of water.

Squirtle looked on as Ash quickly began gulping it down, being careful not to spill a drop anywhere and coughing a little as the sudden gush of liquids ran down his dry throat. The jug was soon empty, his lips back to their moisturised state and he no longer looked like someone in need of dire medical attention. Ash smiled. "Thanks." Squirtle didn't respond happily in kind - he still looked on gravely, Ash frowning. "What's the problem, Squirtle?" he said, in a better mood now that he was not so thirsty and could actually talk properly. All the response he got was a sort of shrugging from Squirtle, who clearly wasn't able to convey the problem easily and didn't intend to frustrate Ash by spending the next hour making it obvious. As Squirtle knew, there would be no need for that in a moment.

The moment came.

Ash felt a strange tickling sensation quietly creeping across his body. He blinked blearily, wondering if this was yet another thing the desert was throwing at him. Had his dehydration had a lasting effect on him? He had no time to elaborate on this train of thought, sitting down quite hard onto the sand. The tickling was becoming quite overwhelming, transposing over into more of a vivid pricking sensation that was soon stabbing him in every way. It wasn't so much hurtful as it was irritating, like millions of little gnats biting at his skin. Yet there was nothing to account for that.

As strangely as the feeling had arrived, it disappeared again. For a moment all Ash could feel was the burn of the sand and the dull throb of the sun. Suddenly a yelp escaped him as, into the strange void of feeling he had been plunged into, a sudden burning feeling appeared and shot through his spine, over his back. Now this did hurt, more than Ash was able to stand without doubling over. For a fleeting moment he thought worriedly that whatever it was that Brock and Misty had came down with, he had caught it too - but obviously he hadn't, as a moment later he looked around and found a shell growing out of his back. That certainly wasn't what had happened to the others.

Ash's last doubts on that theory were expelled when he found his body beginning to bulge and stretch, accompanied by popping and clicking noises, the pain being added to the burning sensation that had yet to relent and had now been sweeping down his legs. He grew taller, for a second or so being impressed by how he was growing much more muscular. He looked down at Squirtle who now looked a little smaller compared to his new, slightly higher, stature and couldn't suppress a grin.

Squirtle shot him a knowing, almost crestfallen look. In a moment of strange clarity, Ash understood, his face falling. It was the water - no wonder he had been so slow in letting Ash drink it. As great as his beefing up evidently was, he was scared and, in a sudden reversal of emotions - perhaps brought about by the physiological changes happening to him - was scared. What was happening to him? Was it fatal? Was it some...deformity? And then there was another cry of pain as his ears began melting in a strange way, forming into creamy looking, feathery like ears that were adorned upon his head. The acoustics of the desert noticeably changed as his body adapted to the new, more tuned ears with a slickness that most people could not boast of possessing.

When things were already beginning to look grim, Ash now wondering if it was his sanity, his skin began changing. This was not a welcome change and Ash's eyes bulged. It no longer felt as rubbery as it once had and was taking on an unhealthy blue tinge. At least, it looked unhealthy for a moment, but soon it was firmly on the right side of the spectrum and was blue. His size had levelled out, finally, no more popping and clicking noises as he stood higher than he had before. Squirtle was now having a little trouble suppressing his glee at another related to his kind appearing before his eyes.

His feet began tickling and hands melding together before his eyes, trying to flex his fingers and no longer receiving any such feeling or response from the muscles that had been there. It felt to him like the heat of the desert was finally melting him into a pool of some blue, gooey stuff. He tore his eyes away from his hands to look at the sun for a moment, as if to check his theory, squinting as his eyes seemed strangely sensitive and hurting much more than they usually would.

While Ash felt his face tightening and mouth morphing, he put a hand to his chest. Two things struck him - he no longer had hands, rather three claws on the blue fleshy things that were now his arms. And he no longer had a chest, rather a shell that went all the way around him. An immediate feeling of homeliness kicked in, though, and the shell did not feel alien to him for much longer.

He felt his face in surprise for a while, exploring the way his features had almost completely changed, nose near enough nonexsistent. Still, there was plenty else for Ash to be surprised about. His clothes had torn in places thanks to his sudden size increase. It had not been so drastic as to destroy it all, but now he looked quite tattered, holes in his shirt and torn shoes clinging to him resolutely.

Ash now felt quite cool. He took off his tee shirt and looked at it and the rest of his clothing despondently. Well. It didn't seem like he'd be needing them. In fact, to a point, he had to admit that this felt good. And strangely familiar. Then it dawned on him. The water, it hadn't deformed him. He had become a Wartortle - the evolution of Squirtle. Well, he thought, it sort of made sense.

Throughout all of this Squirtle had watched quietly, but in the latter half of the transformation had broken out into a little grinning dance as he saw what had happened. Ash had never ingested his water before - he wouldn't of wanted him to - but now that he had, he saw no reason why he couldn't at least be happy. To Ash, the little sounds of glee he was making now began to form into something intelligible, the final pieces of his transformation slotting together and providing him with abilities that he certainly didn't recollect as possessing before.

"Squirtle?" Ash said, his voice changed, body feeling alien for a while more as it adapted to his new anatomy with only a minimum of clumsiness, it had to be said. Squirtle stopped dancing, looking stunned for a moment until he understood what had happened. He could understand him now. As much as Squirtle knew this was coming, it still stunned him to see that they were now perfectly capable of talking to each other.

"...Yeah?" Squirtle finally responded in a rather meek voice. He was sincerely hoping that Ash wasn't mad at him - especially since he had started dancing around chuckling like a little schoolgirl when he saw Ash's transformation.

There was a pregnant pause from both sides. The sun continued to hammer down more so than before, as if angry that nobody was paying attention to the excruciating heat it was bringing about, or the blinding yellow sky it gracefully painted. In fact, neither of the two really felt the dryness of the air anymore, or felt even vaguely clammy. Well, that solved one problem.

"What just happened?" Ash said, stunned and happy all at the same time. He didn't know what to think anymore.

"Well...it was a hard decision," Squirtle admitted. "I don't understand completely myself. But drinking my water made you a Wartotle," he said matter of factly. Ash chuckled.

"I know that much. It's not all bad."

"I think it's worse than you expect. It's permanent."

The weight of this statement took a while to get to Ash, but when it did, it felt truly like a ton of bricks. A million doors had just closed themselves to him. How could he ever be accepted in this state? How could he talk to Misty like this? He ran a hand over his shell for a moment, feeling new strength and vitality in his previously weak body. The bumps and hardness of the shell felt normal to him. It was clear that no matter how things were to go, he would never feel the urge to return to a humanoid form. It would've been pointless to try, anyway - Squirtle seemed set in his opinon. And, he thought, looking over his body, he couldn't imagine some of the contortions his body had had to undergo being reversible. This was going to be a problem.

He sat for a long time, staring onto the horizon. Squirtle could see that the complete upturning of everything Ash had took for granted was going to take some coming to terms with. He knew, as well as did everyone else, it seemed, that Ash had held something for Misty. He had had vauge plans. And now none of those could ever come to light.

Still, for the million doors that had closed, a million more had opened. He had been blessed with a sound body. And as much as it may've never made itself apparent, Ash did have a sound mind.

And, at least, there was hope. He could save his friends, now, rather than have died in the attempt, lay where nobody would find him, where nothing could save him, disappeared into the dust of time. No. He still had the power to make his mark upon the rest of the world. He could make good of this.

The resolve he had displayed earlier in trudging through the desert came back to him. It may of been a rash decision. There may have been a better way. But this was this, and, with a steely set face, he was going to make the most of it. He was still going to be with Misty, no matter what Giovanni or his people threw at him. No matter what the likes of Jesse and James tried. No matter how many deserts were thrown at him.

Squirtle looked up at Ash, concerned. More time had passed in thought than Ash had expected, and he snapped back to the situation, sat upon a sand dune in the middle of some unnamed desert. "Boss?"

Ash chuckled incredulously. "Boss? Well, I guess that's one way to put it..." What a character he could be.

"Umm... Well," he said, scratching the back of his head. "You're not going to like this," he said, pointing west. Ash looked and immediately felt like he had been punched in the stomach.

There was the professor's tower, a jet black against the yellows of the desert. A little longer and Ash may never had needed to drink from Squirtle. He might not be how he was now. He felt about ready to cry. It became clear to him that Squirtle had not been reluctant for just the transformational properties of his water, but because of the proximity of the tower. The terrible nearness of salvation! Ash had just been too tired and broken to listen to Squirtle's attempts. He sighed.

Then a voice came to his mind from the past, a realisation. This was just the first test of his strength - only moments ago he had decided to make the most of this and not evil just get to him and break him down. What's more, it was no good moping now feeling sorry for himself, not while, no, not while his closest friends still lay there dying, hoping on him.

Nevermind. His fault, then. A mistake. He'd learn. He was still alive.

"Let's go," Ash said, not even commenting on what had happened. Squirtle looked stunned. Any other trainer would have gone beserk, he knew that. He was expecting the worse. He didn't get it.

The two began walking down the dune and towards the horizon.


	5. Devil's Moon

Pokémon Transformation Chronicles

Story #5: Devil's Moon

Note: This one is written by Alex Warlorn.

---

Lilly _knew_ she'd save a fortune in travel fair by turning herself into a Merekrow and frying through Hoenn that way . . . there was nothing to worry about and -agh! Pigeot! Dodge! Dodge!

Saying a spell in English, the Pigeot was suddenly a Pidgy crying for mommy and took off flying. There, nothing lost. Wait! No! It was gone! Not THAT stone! Her grandma's Misdrever would kill her for this! . . .

Looked like she had a bit of searching to do. Lilly sighed as best she could in her form and started looking, doing the best birds eye search she could before the spell wore off later that morning.

- - -

"Whoa! Check this out!" Max exclaimed picking up a bright shinny silvery gemstone with lances of crimson in it.

"Max! You shouldn't touch things on the ground!"

"May! You're not our mom! I can take care of myself, besides, what harm could a rock do?"

"I guess you're right but . . . what kind of rock is it anyway?"

"It's a gem." Stated Brock looking it over.

"Is it an evolution stone?" Ash asked, his brain always on pokemon.

"It doesn't look like any I've ever seen." Brock commented. Ash used Dexter to check, but came up zip.

"Maybe we can use it to pay off our grocery shoe repair bills." May suggested.

"What! No way! I found it! And I say we keep it!" Max protested.

"Look," Brock played peacemaker as always. "No matter what we decide to do with it, besides put it back where we found it, it'll have to wait till the next town, I say we hand it over to the police when we get there to see if anyone claims it."

"You just wanna see Officer Jenny." Max quipped.

"So?"

"Never mind."

The rest of the day went without incident (except for the standard tacked on Rocket attack and blast off of course) and later that evening still a day from the nearest town the group was camping it out. Max had the gem on top of the clearing's stump. It was so beautiful. Bringing out the pokemon to catch some night air, the teams soon took notice of the stone as well.

It was so pure. So perfect. So flawless. As the full moon rose behind it and the light sparkled through, the pokemon couldn't bear -not- to look at it. It held them in its sway like a work of art or singer's voice. The humans were quick to notice the change in behavior in their quadruped companions.

"Hey! Pikachu buddy! What's up?"

"Mudkip? Mudkip? I'm right here!"

"Combusken! What's wrong with you?"

" Groyvle. . . stupid lizard."

The pokemon who the youths had tried to 'snap out of it' turned as one, a crimson glow in their eyes, and leaped at the nearest human bit down hard on them through their cloth and bare arms piercing the skin.

At that moment, the gem shifted off balance off it's own, and fell out of the path of moonlight, instantly every pokemon's eyes returned to normal, and their demeanor returned to normal. The pokemon acted much as Ash had seen pokemon react after being freed of Drowzee's mind control, he was more concerned about that then the bite. As was Brock. Max was actually looking at his own wound in fascination. May meanwhile was suffering a relapse in her pokemon phobia.

And was inching away from her own pokemon who looked at her in total concern and fear for her well being.

Lilly cursed her bad luck of it being a full moon, she knew that stone had a mind all it's own, and it was most active at a full moon night, as was it's curse. She just hoped that she found it before a human or a pokemon did. She didn't want to think about the consequences if someone did.

"Learn more tracking spells mother said, they'll prove more useful then turning Spearow into Pidgey she said. But did I listen? No!"

Recalling the pokemon for lack of a better course of action (and to calm May's nerves), the heroes wondered what was going on, all Ash knew was that rock was trouble. No way in a million years would Pikachu attack him like that, ever!

"Just what happened!" Ash demanded from no one and everyone.

"It HAS to do with that gem, I don't know WHAT it is, but you saw what it did to our pokemon, if it hadn't slipped just then I'd rather not think about it." Brock spat.

"May you okay?" Max asked.

"P-P-pocket monsters! Monsters!" May said to herself. The fragile trust she had gained with pokemon over this last year shattered and her fears of previous years coming crashing down on her.

"Ash! Brock! Something wrong with May!" Max said, everyone was so distracted by May's relapse no one noticed their bite marks had totally vanished.

The two older boys kneeled down besides the Coordinator, who was calming down but still shaken to her bones.

"May, it's okay, I'm here." Ash said in an uncharacteristically soothing voice. He placed a hand on her should and she finally looked up at him, and at the full moon beyond.

May slowly stood up, her arms fell limb at her sides, and she just stared at the glowing white disc in the sky, tilting her head upwards. Her expression was blank save for a slight hint of awe. The moon in her sight slowly turned a bright glowing red. Her eyes reflected this red color, turning from their blue to red within white.

Everyone was started by this change in behavior and wondered what May was up to, they didn't pick up the change in her eye color: who notices the color of someone's eyes?

Like Psyducks during a rainstorm, they looked in May's line of slight to see what she was looking at. And the moon for them all became bright ruby.

Max fell on his knees, Brock leaned foreword, while Ash like May stood limply, his limbs keeping him up through simply knees lock.

Ash's hair turned bright yellow, and his meek amount of body hair turned the same color, thickening and spreading out into thin fur. His canines became sharper, and his nose turned back as his lower face reshaped into a muzzle, his hat fell off the back of his head as his ears shifted position and became long, pointed, and on the top of his head.

His fingers became shorter, and sported tiny claws. Black fur formed on the tips of his ears. Bright red circles formed on his checks and power packs like those of an electric eel grew inside.

His toe went under a similar transformation, and he began to stand on his hunches more. Ash felt pain as his spin grew out and turned into a zigzag patterned length, yellow fur and skin following curse behind, a brownish shade right at the end.

And Ash sweated, and felt pain through all this, but still couldn't take his eyes off the moon, or speak or a word.

Shifting onto the pads of his feet, Ash felt his muscle mass grow: tearing at his mother's most thought of object and his shirt. His eyes now completely red, not a trace of white there, just one solid color, Ash felt annoyance at the fabric constricting his movement and cutting into his skin, and quickly tore it away, freeing his body of all borders between him and the world around him. Putting himself down on his hands and digigraded feet for a moment, he looked up and growled at the crimson moon.

Sparks coming from his cheeks and across his deadly and perfectly designed lean body. Of course, while this was going on, the others were changing too.

Brock knew for a fact for himself that things were just took dry!

His skin's body hair dissolved into nothing, becoming rubbery and smooth, a blue tint covering everything. His fingernails dissolving, his point and middle fingers fused while his ring and pinky did the same. Flattening out, becoming as much fins as fingers.

His already lean frame bulging as the changes went. Orange growths popped through the skin, forcing their way to the surface, one on each arm, leaking blue blood.

Stains and budges appeared on his already stressed pants legs.

His shoes and socks were in no shape to hold his feet now and came off, making Brock stumble somewhat in his crouched over form.

His hair was 'melted' and molded together into two black thick featureless fins on each side of the top of his head, going down the back and tearing at the back of his shirt and jacket. His pants met a swifter end as a huge fin, same as the ones on the top of his head, cut itself free from his seat.

His nose flattened out. As the skin on the front of his body turned a lighter almost white shade of blue. The very shape of his head turned into a lopsided oval. Another set of orange growths grew on his cheeks, these with feelers.

His ears vanished as his torso and lower body became a single sleek trunk, fanning out into the horizontal black fin that split his legs part.

Shrugging off his restraints with much greater ease than Ash (they were already pretty much destroyed), the red-eyed sea monster opened it jaws and let out a song call like an echo at the sky above.

May at the same time, hugged herself as her body shook, the pain she was suffering ten times worse that the others had, as her hair fell off in clumps and her skin began to look scaly, then the scales lifted off, thinning, slipping apart at nearly a microscopic level, held together by a shaft in the middle made of cartilage. The feathers spread or rather, emerged equally all over the poor girl's body.

Her cloth already poofing out from the feathers, fell apart as her meek muscle mass increased, and just kept increasing.

Her shoes and socks were ruined, her toes and feet became claws and talons, three in the front, one in the back.

Her teeth fused together, her lips turned into something like bone and pulled out like taffy into a sharp and vicious looking beak.

Her hair long gone, a trio of feather grew out of out of the back of her mostly unchanged head.

Her ears covered up and gone, yellow feathers covered May's upper body while feathers orange almost red covered her lower body. Her fingers fused into three claws each, useless for anything except rendering prey or enemies. Her pure red eyes looked at the things covering her beautiful form from everyone and punished the things for performing such a crime. Indeed, if May had still been human, her shape could have made her quite the looker. Not that this would have had any effect on her self-confidence.

The muscles on May's legs double in mass: making them thicker than Ash's arms. She looked like she could jump over a treetop.

clicking her beat together, the bird woman squawked at the night sky, not sounding the least bit comical, weather you saw the caller or not.

Max's glasses fell of as he shook, he hadn't needed them now. he grew the least in size or mass of the others. His body more stretched out as he shook. Losing hair and fingernails. His skin turned a scaly green, an orange/red patch forming on his belly. Not that he could see it yet.

Lean muscles formed on Max's body, but he remained small, his fingers became three, as his toes followed suit. Max's feet moving more to the center of their feet rather than to one end.

Max's entire body smoothed over, becoming more a single piece looking, rather than separate parts. His nose loped foreword, his upper face becoming one with it, leaning over his jaw, which receded.

His eyes moved to the side of his head, doubling in size in an instant. His new eyebrows arched upward, and upward, until they took up nearly his entire head, the split down taking up a good portion of his brain casing. His neck totally vanished, but there was still a thinning between the boy lizard's head and his torso. A large deceptively poofy tail really made of solid muscle burst out of his shorts, ruining them. His hair of course was long since history. It looked rather like a leaf with a curl at the end. The lizard took one look at the rest of his pack mates, and discarded the things covering him, letting him stand free and unrestrained like the rest of the pack.

He added his call to the night sky.

His truly red eyes reflected a truly red moon.

- - -

Lilly felt her blood run cold when she heard those calls. She had only heard something like it once before. And she wished she had never had to hear it again!

When had she heard it last? So long ago, not long enough.

"Come on Lilly, you parents aren't gonna notice this is gone!"

"But Mike. My parents and grandparents promised to turn me into a Polywag if I was caught sneaking in here!"

"And you believed them? Be serious! Come on! Let's just have look see!"

'Lillyflower' nodded at the boy's words and proceeded with their plan.

Merkrow had followed them in. Curious himself. The window just happened to face that way. The moon happened to rise at that time. The gem knew to play its opportunities. Mike screamed when Mercrow bit him.

But he didn't drop the gem, if anything he felt it tighter, and looked at it through the moonlight. And that merkrow the size of Mike, the lad who Lillyflower had thought was the only boy who wasn't icky, looked at her with those eyes, that reflected only red.

She ran, and it followed her, still holding the gem, she just ran. The few parlor tricks she knew emptied out of her head in her panic.

She escaped out the window and it followed her.

She tripped, it landed, loaming over her, its great black wings blocking out the white moon.

A flash of light, and a perfect normal merecrow stood there, stupidly looking at her, and flew away, not even noticing the gem on the ground. Her parents looked at her . . . such anger and disappointment in those eyes.

A spanking and several lectures, Lilly received no other punishment. What had happened to Mike had been deemed punishment enough for her.

Of course no one found it she or her family was connected to Mike vanishing off the face of the Earth.

How many Mercrow had she captured, looked in their eyes, and just let go? Hoping she'd see him somewhere in those eyes. Her parent's spell had been done in a flash to save her. They didn't know for sure how much of Mike was left in the black bird that flew away.

Lilly never gave up trying.

Why else had she been so fixated on learning to speak pokemon regardless of how long she knew them?

From a book her parents had been barely able to translate, much less save. She knew it was dangerous, yet she tried anyway. And almost met with disaster and cursed that one boy. Until he learned it was temporally, and suddenly it was all just a game to him.

- - -

Lily brought to mind every spell she knew, prepared for whatever she found. She wasn't a child too young to hold a poke ball anymore. She was the thing that gave red apples a bad name. She steeled herself for whatever she saw next.

She just wished she knew enough magic to destroy that cursed thing properly, leaving it on it's own was just what the evil thing wanted.

She moved with grace and caution that you either learned or blew yourself up in her business.

She had picked up a few things from having been a bird of the dark for a regular amount of time each day. And night.

She saw them, a male Pikachu at the front of the pack the Alpha Male, a female Combusken right besides him Alpha Female, a Swamperd looking a little odd out of the water right behind and between them, and a Trecko sitting right besides the pack, the Omega.

Four of them: Lily was scared of facing just one.

All of them humanoid, all of them naked, their cloths scattered around them in pieces, all of them quite feral. Reminding Lily of mad animals. And where was . . . the moon's eye! In front of them, on it's side, on a stump. Lily also took note of all the poke balls at their feet. Lily guessed they had recalled their pokemon after they bit them. Good for the pokemon. No telling what these things would do to something not of the pack. Not part of the moon's eye.

Now she doubted they recognized what a poke ball was. She also cursed herself, if she had been here maybe five or ten minute earlier, she could have saved them all.

She noticed one of the poke balls moving about and shifting this way and that, the pokemon inside desperately trying to get out. Lily prayed it didn't succeed.

She prayed to every legendary she knew.

_Okay you half-baked witch, what do you do now?_

She had no intention of putting them out of their misery like her parents had Mike that night.

Her first priority had to be to get the moon's eye.

She just wished she hadn't pretended this day would never come.

The were's had finished praising the moon and the pair at the front leading, the pack began to move. Lily could guess where, follow subconscious knowledge to where humans were, and spread the moon eye's curse.

The treeko were picked up the moon's eye as it straggled just the slightly bit behind, being a boy while the other three were full blown adult creatures.

Lily thought about what was in her bag and trick how she could get the gem back without getting herself cursed or torn limb from limb.

She remembered the incident from the day before, which had started this entire disaster to begin with. It would really only affect one, but it should sow enough confusion for her to make her move.

Saying the appropriate words as low as she could pointing her finger at the pack, feeling like a train just hit her in the gut. In a flash the giant Swampard was shrunk into a child Mudkip, who looked only confused at the sudden change in the shape of the vessel of the curse.

All the weres stopped and looked directly at him, also confused at what had happened. It would only last for a few seconds before they would decide to either eat him or move on and continue their trek.

Feeling like she had just cut off ten years of her own life with that spell, Lily made a mad dash for it, feeling less a powerful magic user and more a cheap cut purse.

She grabbed the gem in the were-treeko's hands, just glade she had been downwind this entire time. And pulled it from his unsuspecting grubby hands, and ran for her life.

The beasts roared behind her and gave cash, it was a matter of seconds before they over came her and that would be that. The moon's eye felt hot with anger in her hands. She tripped on a pokeball. She very well knew she was dead. She just hoped St. Peter let her in.

The pokeball she had tripped on opened. A very normal sized pikachu popped out in an instant. It had been the struggling poke ball. It saw the monsters coming right at him, and did what any pikachu does instinctively when surprised or alarmed.

Lily hoped she died from the electric shock rather than those things claws and bites, or suffered a worse fate. But most of the force was directed in the direction opposite of her. The mudkip child was the only truly knocked out. The were-pikachu beast were felt it. The were-combusken's body heat just deflected it. And the were-treeko's natural resistance just left him winded.

Wishing she had time to turn around and take her poor rescuer with her. She now had about six seconds to get up and run and figure out what to do in that time frame before those claws reached her heart.

If she had been thinking a bit more clearly, she might have just unleashed the horde of pokemon around her. But she didn't exactly how time to go into a detailed analysis of the situation.

She knew if she tried to use her pre-cast merecrow spell she'd be flash fried before she was five seconds off the ground.

And the gem would back in -their- hands. Or was it vice versa? She heard the pokemon cry in confusion and dismay at what it saw. Lily couldn't blame it.

The were-pikachu stopped for about three seconds to regard the smaller yellow animal. It knew this pokemon was supposed to be its pack mate as well. But one word now screamed into his head. _Traitor!_

The were-Treeko took a dive at Lilly, she ducked and rolled, somehow doing it, her cape bellowing above her and blocking the lizard child's vision enough to slam his head into a tree, leaving an impression.

That head butt would have shattered her spine had it hit.

The moon's eye actually shook with frustration.

The mudkip was out. The pikas had each other occupied. The were-treeko child was done for about seven second. But Lily still had two seconds before the combusken impaled her on those claws. Doing something completely insane Lily held the gem out, the Combustion stopped its slash attack. While the moon's eye knew it couldn't be shattered that easily, Lily doubted it had bothered to implant that knowledge in it's creation.

Lily was sure she had only bought herself about four seconds when a few tears fell down the treeko-were's head from the pain. This caught the Combusken's attention for a few moments before they dried and the all-important and all controlling task at hand took hold again.

These were fresh birthing of the moon eye's power; they had a few more minutes before they completely settled into their functions. They still reacted to fundamental things like pain.

"Pikapi! Pika! Piki! Pikachu pi!" Shouted the pokemon his voice full of horror.

_Keep talking!_ Lily mentally begged the electric mouse. It distracted the weres again. Lily knew they'd remember her the instant she tried to move away, and she'd have no time to react.

Thankfully all the moon's eye eyes were on the little pokemon for these precious seconds.

_I didn't think this would happen. But it has.'_

Lily began, if she spoke, the moon eye's ears would hear her, so she began in her head, so instead of feeling her tongue on fire, she felt her brain on fire.

_Perverter of forms. Spawn of the outsider Deoxsys._ She held off touch the stone was long as possible, they were closing in on the mouse. _Just a little more._

_I offer myself as tribute, by the will of the Dreamer, the Traveler, and the Mother._ They were on top of him, and she had to begin the material part now.

She touched her bleeding finger to the surface of the gem. All the weres turned their heads instantly at her.

Not having time to be neat, she smeared the pattern etched into her memory meant as an emergency last resort. It dried instantly as it went. _Be deaf! Be dumb! Be mute! Be blind! Be silent!_ She stabbed the dot in the center of the circle and felt every nerve in her left hand be torn to shreds. And a final 'pep' of absolute anger at her from the stone before the binding solidified.

The three weres completed their leaping tackle on her, but did not eat her internal organs.

A pair of blue eyes blinked at Lily in confusion. "Who, who are you? What's going on? Wha-" The woman, no, girl, looked at herself. "What AM I!"

"Lily?"

No. No, no, no, no! It could NOT be -that- boy!

The were-pikachu was no longer muscle bound, no more than any of the others. He looked at her in recognition, and confusion at well. The treeko was looking at himself in pure curiosity, the reality of things hadn't sink in yet.

The mudkip still out of course.

"What's going on here? I, I don't remember what happened, how am I . . . Pikachu!"

"Pikapi!" Tears in his eyes, 'this time you were the one the slave.' Pikachu wondered if he should have been slashed at, just to make up for how he had treated Ash when possessed.

The two hugged. You had never seen a sweeter thing. May moved off Lily, just looking at herself, looking at herself, her mind twisting in on itself. It had finally occurred to Max that he was naked. But . . . why wasn't he ashamed?

Lily picked herself up. Why did this boy have to keep paying for her mistakes? And this time the recovery would be much longer.

- - -

The morning sun found Lily looking at the group of adventurers, at the traditional cross roads of parting. Bird chirped, the wind blew, oblivious to the night's previous horrors. Or was it in defiance?

She looked at the four human appearing beings in front of her, regret bit at her.

She bowed her head and closed her eyes. "I know nothing I say or can repair the damage I've done, I'll only say I'm sorry, and let you decide the rest."

Max said. "Are you kidding? You saved us!"

Lily started at this, and did her best to smile.

Thankfully Brock's backpack contained everything, including fresh cloths. May was in a green and orange version of her normal attire.

"So." May looked at her now bare hand. "Am I human, a pokemon? Or just a mesh of the two?"

"You were all possessed for less than an hour. With the seal I made intact, as long as none of you look at the full moon next month you should all be completely cured before the full moon the month following that."

"What about Brock? Can't you bring change him back to normal?" Ash said pulling at the silently boy, just a tad older than Max.

Lily shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I'm a coward . . . each time I use that spell, I kill myself a little, literal, I use when it's a choice of cutting your time short . . . or loosing all of it . . . you can't make people immortal, no matter how hard you try. Magic can't bring eternal youth and life."

"Lily . . ." Ash pointed (his mother would have slapped him). "Your hand?"

"I'll never be able to use it again as long as I live. And in exchange, the moon's eye will be helpless as long as I live."

Brock turned away slightly, Lily raised a hand, but Brock stopped her. "No, you've done so much already today my sweet! Do not do more on my account!"

Lily blushed. "Thank you."

Max moaned. "Oh great, now the ladies are going to be all over him."

"Do you really have to go?" Ash asked.

"I came to Hoenn hoping to find a way to destroy this thing forever without releasing the curse inside. I have to continue that travel. I was too scared to make the safeguard when my grandmother died. And my mother was never allowed to. The moon's eye taint on you should fade. The Unown runes have left it helpless as I said. Your minds and souls are free of it. Your bodies . . . I guess that will be your destiny to decides." Lily fastened her shoulder back tightly. "Now with wuff and stuff put to the test, mixed in with mercrow's best!" A black cloud covered Lily, when it cleared, a mercrow stood in her black, holding a mini-version of the shoulder back. "Crow. I hope we meet again for a happy occasion." She took off and flew, away, not once looking back.

- - -

-Almost one month later-

That night in the pokemon center, in a room in the center of the building with no window, the foursome all looked at each other.

"This is it." May said, her phobia having gone back into the shadows from which it came. "The moment of truth. After tonight we're free."

May looked at her hand and flexed her fingers. Something claws could never do.

Claws and fins could never hold a pencil, never type, never write, never pull weeds from a garden, and you had a hard time hugging with them.

May saw how deep a struggle Ash was having in that moment. Half of him wanted him to be free, and another half, wanted him to be free. Only little push would be all it would take. While in control of that thing, while it had only been for a few minutes, she had still been structured as his. It would be so easy to slip into that role. But that wasn't the right way. If she were to ever win Ash, she'd do it without cheating. Without bending any rules. Without taking any advantage of him.

That wasn't what love was. So she just held his hand, as they all sat around and waited the night for the moon to come and go. And she just said, "It's alright, it's all right. I'm right here."

-Fin.


	6. Dragonite Love Letter

Pokémon Transformation Chronicles

Story #6: Dragonite Love Letter

Author's Notes: Waynemon, fellow writer, wrote this story.

------------

Ash stood in his room looking out of the window wondering when Pkachu, Misty  
and Brock will be getting back for town. He moved away from the window and  
sat down on the bed. He looked at the time then lay back on the bed, he then  
closed his eyes to get some sleep.

Suddenly he heard the sound of tapping but thought it was coming from the  
door, Ash opened his eyes sitting up yawning a bit "Wonder if that's them?"

He went to the door and checked the time being around night time by now. he  
opened the door to see no one on the other side "Hello?" Ash called out,  
looking to his left then right. There was no one in sight. But he heard the tapping  
sound then looked to his right and over the shoulder to see a Dragonite at  
the window flying. "What the?" Ash muttered and closed the door walking to  
the window.

Ash went over and saw something in the Dragonite's claw-hand holding it as it  
flew. He opened the window and it flew in since the window was massive.  
Dragonite entered the room and landed on it's three claw feet and then raise  
it three claw and clawed thumb hand to Ash with the letter.

Ash took it and noticed it had a heart on it "For me?" Ash points to himself  
and the dragon-type pokemon nods. Ask turned it around to open it then   
looked at the Dragonite again "You're sure?" Ash asked again making sure, the  
Dragonite juse nod with a smile.

"Oh well if it's for me, there's no harm in reading it" Ash said opening it up then he  
start to read it out loud to himself and the dragonite infront of him.

"_Dragonite Love that is strong  
Dragonite Power believe in the soul  
Dragonite Tail swing and sway  
Dragonite Wings flap them hard  
Dragonite Head and Face beauty in one_"

Ash read it and frowns "This would be better for a dragonite then a human"  
Ash said and gave it back but the Dragonite ate the paper then blow in his  
face.

Ash coughed "What's the big idea?" Ash waved his hands faning what left away  
but landed on his back and lower back then disappeared. The Dragonite just  
smiled standing waiting for something to happen. Ash thought it was crazy  
then he felt something strange.

Ash felt his back of his jeans all the way up the middle of his jacket and  
t-shirt start to strain then he notice his body was widening out his legs  
being pulled away from close to each other to away feeling mass building in  
them.

"What have you done to me?" Ash said and felt the widening worsen and   
then... RIP! The backs of the jeans, t-shirt and jacket rip apart he grab  
hold of his jeans holding them but felt his boxers now slipped down the side  
of the jean leg then onto the floor between his legs. He was embarrested at  
most with his butt showing. But his legs was now about a bit feather apart  
then the Dragonite that was standing in front smiling still with the middle  
parts of his jeans straining badly.

Ash looked behind himself seeing a mirror and notice his back was yellow now  
and then before his eyes turn orange and scaly, but he notice his butt push  
out till it was level with his now large widen back. His torso also widen  
out but he felt the insides changing as this happen pulling out side ways   
and forwards making him look more bigger then he still is.

Ash look in horror as he saw a lump form then push out into a tail a thick  
one that lowered between the legs then moved out connecting to his front and  
back it having cream colour on the under side ridge.

Ash gasped turning his head back around "No way! Turn me back to normal! I...   
no!" Ash was yelling at the Dragonite then felt his arms started to gain mass  
and pull back a bit, his fingers and thumbs pulling in and so did his toes  
as he felt them fade into his feet. He lost grip of the jeans but only the  
top part flapped down show a Dragonite lower torso with his t-shirt falling  
off his arms with his jacket landing on the ground in front of his feet with  
the shoes starting to strain.

"Please don't do this, I don't want to be a Pokémon!" Ash cried out as the   
remains of the jeans ripping and the shoes starting to rip at the fronts  
from something new coming out of his feet and the skin now all over orange  
part from his front torso and underside of the tail being creamed and  
ridged. Claws came out of his hands and a thumb claw appearing as well.

Ash looked down seeing the jeans rip down the seems then ripped completely  
away he was now naked but he saw the shoes open at the ends showing claws  
then a sudden growth all over made him taller then the Dragonite in front of  
him by a litte bit and bigger in size and this growth ripped his shoes apart  
showing his three clawed scaly Dragonite feet.

Ash felt wings pulling out of his orange scaly back then spread out with a  
good wingspan he looked behind nothing human but his head with no hair now  
and the neck bigger to match his Dragonite body.

Ash felt is head starting to change and orange all over it like his body now  
scaly as well, but as this happened his sckull reshaping itself he felt  
something in his mind trying to surface to replace his human thoughts, life  
and all he knew to match the changing to a Dragonite. "What... wh...?"

He felt the snout push out with the nostiles at the top ends of his now  
snout as his head finally changed to a Dragonite head.

Ash felt the feeling stronger entering and fusing into his mind with him  
losing control of his body and turn around at the mirror. He watched his   
Dragonite Antener the first one appear and as this happened cream appeared  
around his eye then his eye changed into a golden brown colour not dark  
brown like his own eyes but he was looking at a Dragonite with one antenna.  
Then the second one appeared and his sight was fading then it was blank.

But then he regain his sight but felt a new leash of life in him to see a  
Dragonite still with a creamy front from the start of the neck down the  
torso thn to the underside of the tail. The rest orange part from his wings   
which was creamy colour as well. Ash raised a hand and the Dragonite in the  
reflection did as well, he looked down to see the front of his Dragonite  
torso and the three clawed feet below touching the ground. He looked back at  
the mirror walked to it and touched it feeling his claw hand touching it and  
seeing it with his own eyes.

"Is this me?" Ash blinkd

"Yes, handsome." he turn and saw the Dragonite.

"You did this to me?" Ash asked a bit confused  
"Did you what? Don;'t you remember that you've always been a Dragonite?"  
She said back walking over to him steping on his ripped clothes and shoes on the floor and  
touching his scaly ridged chest moving down a bit with a claw then up again.

He looked at her claw moving down then up Ash then moved his head up a  
little closing his eyes with pleasure. Ash then opn them and answered as she  
stepped back past the clothes backwards "No I think... believe that I've  
been like this since I enolved from a lower form human I think... no   
Dragonair thats it" Ash said pointing a claw thumb at himself.  
"Then lets get this thing off, your a Dragonite no need for such human stuff  
on own bodies, heats and all we be prude to show our Dragonite sevles." AShe  
said as he moved a bit to her and she reached and took his cap off his head  
about to throw it but Ash took it.

She thought the human that was Ash was gone but trying to hold on "let me"  
Ash said and put a claw through it and pulled down ripping it in half then   
dropping it walking over his own clothes to the other Dragonite standing on  
them. "Thank you for making my soul and heart glimmer brightly my love, I am  
Ash" He took her claw hands and put them together with his claw hands over  
them being gentle to the touch on her scaly top sides of her claw hands  
looking at her amber eyes.

"I am Amber and you are the most handsome and sweetest Dragonite I've met"  
she said looking back into his golden brown eyes.

Ash nuzzled her with his snout then turn her claws around placing his on top  
then look back into her eyes "Wull you be my mate for as long as we live?"  
Amber smiled "Yes Ash I will" Amber pulled her claw hands away then moved  
them around his body then pulled him he putting his arms around her with  
claw feet touching each other the torsos of both pressed against each other  
and them nuzzling each other for a moment.

Then they moved away a little "Lets go to our new home" Ash nods and both  
fly out of the window one after the other. "we will never be alone" She  
smiled and both fly into the night sky to start a life together Ash leaving  
his human life behind.

Pikachu, Misty and Brock come back to find only torn remains of Ash clothes,  
shoes and his hat with a camera still on at the open window and they took it  
and pluged it into the TV and they watched what became of Ash...


	7. Rip Roaring Good Time

Pokémon Transformation Chronicles

Story #7: Rip-Roaring Good Time

-----

Charific Valley, Nighttime

A mysterious fog bank appears from nowhere and covers the Valley of Charizard. Little known to anyone, this fog bank is created by the sparkles that Ho-Oh leaves. They are drawn to the greatest concentration of Fire Pokémon of the same species. There is much magic within this fog...

- - -

Pallet Town, A Few days later

"What? Something's going on at Charific Valley?", Ash screamed from the videophone.

"Ow... Don't yell so loud, Ash. If you want, you can help Misty check it out," Professor Oak stated.

"Wait... Misty? Don't get me wrong proffessor, she's a great friend and all," Ash said, pausing as he blushed, "But... She's a Water Trainer. Wouldn't Blaine be a better choice for this? Or even Tracey?"

"Blaine's hard to get a hold of, Ash."

"And I'm too busy helping Professor Oak try to figure out the cause of this."

"Also, Misty is very good at acting. Do you want to help or not?"

"Of course! I need to make sure Charizard is alright. So what do you want me and Misty to do?"

"Well... You remember hearing about how I used to study Pokémon?"

"Yeah, wearing Pokémon Suits and watching them, wh--- oooh."

"Yes, Misty already has studied what the Charizard do when, and the situtation has been explained to both your Charizard and Charla, so all you have to do is get over there."

"Alright. I guess Brock can make sure that May and Max are alright while I go back to help Misty."

- - -

Charific Valley, a few hours later...

Ash Dropped off his Pokémon with Liza, and met up with Misty. As they were putting on their costumes over their regular clothes (Though Ash refused to go anywhere without his hat), they started up a small discussion.

"So... How did you get talked into this, Misty? I mean, you like Water Pokémon alot more than Fire Pokémon", Ash asked of her.

"I just wanted to get away from the gym and my sisters...", Misty said, _And because I knew you'd come..._

"Al... Alright."

As they put on the costumes they noticed two things. One, while the costume had a head, they were seeing through the neck - two, the head was animatronic.  
- - -

11:00 AM - Before Practice

"Charizard?"

Ash's Charizard looked up at him, not exactly recognizing him at first. He cocked his head and roared oiut a slighty confused greating.

"It's Me, Ash," Ash said, handing Charizard his old hat, that he had gotten from the pack the Dragonite that brought him to Charific Valley was wearing. Apparently the costumes were made well enough to make one seem like a Charizard, at least, in the fog. Charizard Smiled at his trainer.

"Yeah, could you hang on to this for me? I'll be wearing my new one until then, but... I'll want this back after we're done."

Charizard nodded and took Ash's hat and went into a nearby cave for a bit, before returning without it. He must have placed it somewhere inside and then he motioned towards it.

"So this is where Ash and I will be staying, right?", Misty asked.

Charizard nodded.

"Thanks Charizard. We'll see you in a few hours for 'training'," Ash said.

Charizard nodded in agreement, As Ash entered the cave, followed by Misty.

- - - -

1:00 PM: Flight Training

"Oh joy, flight training. We don't even know if these things CAN fly," Ash said from behind Charizard.

"Well, Charla and Charizard will cover for us... I hope."

Little did anyone notice that the fog was having a strange effect on the 'newcomers', or rather, Ash & Misty's costumes. The wings started to push at their backs, and painlessly punctured through their bodies, until they connected to their skeletal and nervous systems. However, the two thought that it was just the heavy costume wings pushing against .their bodies. The wings then became scaled rather than covered in material used for clothing. They were as real as any part of the body now.

Misty crossed her arms... her wings aslso crossed over her body.

Ash noticed this, "Huh? Hey! Misty look!"

"Huh? What the--?", Misty questioned.

"The wings work! Looks like we can observe them throughout this whole training excerisse!"

Ash focused as he took off, much the way that his Charizard has done ever since he learned how to fly, followed shortly thereafter by Misty.

Apparently, the flight training was simply making sure that they could fly right that day, flying around the various rock formations in the valley. Ash enjoyed his first time actually flying on his own.

_I wish I could do this forever._

- - -

3:00 PM: Melee Battle Practice

"Melee?", Ash asked, "You mean fighting with our arms and such? They'd TOTAL us - or reveal that these are just costumes."

"Good point."

"Think we can ask Charizard and Charla to wing it?"

"I guess..."

Ash walks up to Charizard and Charla, "Umm... could you two spar with us? You know, taking it easy on us?"

Charizard and Charla looked at each other and nodded, and then did the same to Ash and Misty.

"Thanks Charizard, you're a real pal."

Charla walked to the other Charizards -Okay, listen up, I'm going to be training Blaze, the female rookie. This is because I can take it easy on her. Her first trainer used her for Pokémon contests, but her current trainer wants to use her for battles like the rest of us. So I have to get her accustomed to battling. Flare will be taking on Ash. The rest of you, pair up as usual.-

The reason for Charla to call Misty "Blaze" was because of her name. With a name like Misty, she would be exposed far too easily.

The other Charizard nodded in agreement, the scarred Charizard - known as Scar, his actual name long forgotten - reluctantly so. He never did like how Charla took to the relative newcomer Flare, Ash's Charizard. But, Charla was stronger than him, so she currently had the right to choose who she favored. He also didn't trust this male newcomer. Something about him didn't look right...

A little later, the battle was on. Ash & Misty grappled with Charizard and Charla. The actual Charizards were hardly pushing as Ash & Misty used their full strength. However, as they were doing such, their arms and legs started burning, but they wouldn't just give in to attend to it. What they didn't know was their arm and leg muscles were expanding by the moment. Their feet start merging with the three toed claws on the feet, which start digging into the ground, keeping Ash & Misty rooted in place. Their hands merge with the hand claws, and their muscles have expanded.

Just now, Ash started overpowering Charizard. With a slight gasp of Shock, Charizard started to put in more and more strength, but Ash still didn't budge. - Alright Ash, if that's the way it's done... -

Charizard pumped all of his strenght into pushing against Ash, despite this, Ash and Charizard were even. This surprised Charizard, who, while he knew his trainer was resistant to Pokémon attacks, he didn't ever recall him having such immense physical strength. Misty on the other hand, was still struggling a bit against Charla, but she did manage to surprise her with her strength. Charla didn't have to pump as much energy into it, but she did have to up the ante a little.

A while later, the training was over.

"Charizard? Thanks for going easy on me," Ash said, shaking his Charizard's claw, before he turned and walked off.

_...I didn't have to... Ash... since when were you so powerful?_ Charizard wondered as he looked down. Then he noticed the footprints-- no... CLAWPRINTS that the costume left behind looked identical to his own. _Wait... that's impossible... How did the costume leave behind Charizard prints?_ _...wait... did I even check earlier? That must be it... There's no way that he..._

Misty on the other hand was exausted, as she thanked Charla, and walked off. Charla was impressed that the girl showed so much strength. But... was it possible for a human to get her off guard like that? Not even Liza was able to do that to her...

- - -

5:00 PM: Nightfall

The Charizard (and Ash & Misty) were all spread around the place... While most of the Charizard's tails were brilliant flames, Ash & Misty's glowed paley in comparison. But their attention weren't on their tails at all.

"Wow, it's night already? I think I had fun today... so is that all?"

"No, they still practice something else at Night after a small break."

_...Maybe I should just tell him/her._ They thought at once.

"Ash I/Misty I...", they said at once, then blushed, tho it wasn't exactly visible through their costumes.

"You first, Misty."

"Thanks... Ash... I... I just want to say... I... I think I love you," Misty said after a moment's hesistation.

Ash smiled (though again it couldn't be seen throught the suit), and grasped Misty's hand with both of his own, and kneeled, "And... I love you too, Misty."

While they were talking, their bodies were adjusting to the same size as the costumes would show them to be. Their tails became real and connected with their nervous system and spine, and the weak glow of the fabric became a roaring fire. The two stood their, embracing one another, as they listened to the crickets, and watched the stars in the sky while basking in the warm glow of the fire on their tails.

- - -

7:00 PM: Fire Attack Practice

Ash and Misty sat aside from the real Charizard, and watched as they practiced their Flamethrower attacks. They hoped that Charla and Charizard would be able to get them to bypass this excerise (for obvious reasons), but Scar, who had been eyeing Ash strangely since the day began, grabbed Ash by the arm and pulled him over to the training ground.

-Alright Rookie, you've been ducking out of this for a while... prove you're a REAL Charizard by using a flamethrower.-

Ash couldn't understand him, per se, but he could just TELL what Scar was daring him to do. Ash gulped silently. If he didn't manage this, his cover would be blown. But could the suit do that? Make a realistic flamethrower? Misty stepped out and put a hand on his shoulder. At least she would be here with him, trying to help as well.

_Here goes Nothing..._ Ash thought.

Ash & Misty both closed their eyes and inhaled deeply. They could feel a strange burning in their lungs... but maybe that was just the costume... As they began to exhale, they could feel the heat move up their throat... and up... and up... What they didn't realize was their necks were rising in the costume.

Soon the flames rested in their mouths, which were, with slight pain, reforming along with the rest of their heads. They released the flames and opened their eyes. To their surprise, the flame was huge. These suits worked better than they thought... wait... Suits? No... they were Charizard. They didn't need clothes. Ash used to wear hats, but he outgrew them when he evolved into a Charizard alongside his twin Brother, Flare. Other than that, neither of them have ever worn clothes.

Ash grinned at Scar - Any more questions, Scar? -

Scar grumbled, -No.-

- Good. -

Charizard, alias Flare, felt that this was somehow... WRONG. Ash was his trainer... but he's acting like a Charizard... even talking like one... He began to walk over to him... wait... WAS Ash his trainer? Or did he just look up to his twin brother as if he was one? He seems to remember knowing Ash from as soon as he was hatched... maybe the other stuff he thought he remembered was just a dream... yeah, that was it. It had to be...

The memories of the new altered timeline filled Flare's mind. They were brothers. They were seperated when Damon had gotten him and abused him, but was rescued when Ash had came with his girlfriend and his friends.

-Ash...- Flare said, putting his claw on his brother's shoulder -Good work.-

-Yeah, Thanks, bro.-

The two Charizard headed into their cave, which was larger than most of the others knew. This is where Ash had left his friends while he went training. Sometime later that night, roars of pleasure could be heard from the cave, which didn't quiet down for quite a while.

- - -

A Few Days Later...

The rest of Ash's Pokémon have came to the Charific Valley. After staying there for a while, their minds, like that of Ash & Misty, or Blaze as she's known as now, are altered so the memories match Ash & Misty's new bodies.

-Hey, Boss! How'd the training go?- Asked Shades the Squirtle. He and Terk the Treeko always referred to Ash as 'Boss'.

-It went great. But that's not all...- Ash replied.

-Oh? What else happened?- William, The Bulbasaur asked.

-Well... You see... Ash and I... We... We've decided to drop the act. We're a couple now. I'm going to be having Ash's eggs in a few weeks- Replied Blaze.

Jean Luc Pikachu hopped up and onto Ash's Back -Congratulations, Ash! We knew you and Blaze would get together!-

-Yay! Papa and Mama are finally together!- cheered Junior, the Phanpy.

Flare and Charla stood behind them, both smiling. Ash then took one look at his old hats that he had when he was a Charmander and a Charmeleon, respectively.

_Life can't get any better than this._


	8. A Big Pika Mistake

Chronicle #8: A Big Pika Mistake  
Disclaimer: Don't Own, Don't Sue  
Author's Note: Written By Threehorn

----------

This is my story how a mistake that I did first believe to be nothing but came out worse then I thought for some friends but in a way it worn on me to accept what happened but a sworn reminder comes when...

"Jean Luc, Professor Oak got us some Chow! Move your legs, that's what they're good for!" A Male Raichu called out

"Come on, son. Eat up!" a Female Raichu called out afterwards.

"Coming Mom... Dad..." Ash's Pikachu, wearing Ash's hat, called back then looked at the viewers reading the story, "As I was saying here is what happened and by the time you watched, you will understand what is going on..."

"Jean Luc!" both shouted together.

Pikachu gulps "Got to go and eat. Watch it and see what I mean." Pikachu dashed away to the two Raichus and the view turn to a forest and goes in.

----------

3 Days Earlier...

Ash and Misty with Pikachu walked down the path with Ash and Misty carrying sleeping bags with the other items all set up for camping when they find the place they was heading for.

"Hey Ash, thanks for dropping by for a little camping trip with me, I needed to get away from my sisters." Misty said looking over at him with a smile as they walked.

Ash smiled back "No problem. I needed the break any way and so did Pikachu, he's improved alot since you've last seen him but I would never leave my best friend behind," Ash said and spoke as they turn left on a fork path then looking down at his pal Pikachu.

-Good to be here too Ash- Pikachu replied happily.

"Aw, look at that. Pikachu seem to like your choice as well." Misty said stopping then picking Pikachu up putting him on her head then turn at Ash.

"Is that the lake?" she points to the water in view.

Ash looked and smiled "Yep. For once we found where we want to go!" Ash said then laughed.

"What is **that** suppose to mean?" Misty put her hands on her hips, annoyed.

-Here we go again, just like old times- Pikachu jumped down from Misty and had a look around as Ash tried to wiggle out of this one, but Pikachu did it for him -Ash! Look, a thunder stone!-

Ash and Misty went up to Pikachu and Misty Picked it up "A Thunder Stone, looks like Pikachu found it." Misty showed it to Ash.

-That's what I just told you two- Pikachu sighed and crossed his furry arms.

"Wow that's great." Ash about to take it and Misty moved it away "What's the deal? I just want a look!" Ash looked at her with some confusion.

"How about we evolve Pikachu?" Misty joked.

Pikachu looked shocked at this point -you better be kidding me Misty-

Pikachu said with annoyed tone not finding it funny.

"No." Ash reached for it and Misty put her hand the free one on his chest

"Misty quit it, give me it so I can throw it in the lake." Ash spoke out still trying to get it.

Pikachu was now anger watching Misty play around like that with his best friend -Stop!- Pikachu yelled out and fired a thunderbolt, both froze and saw it coming. They and the stone were zapped, and the thunder stone blew up, blasting Ash and Misty away from each other hitting the trees on either end.

Pikachu looked in shock -Oh no! what have I done!- Pikachu then took cover as Ash and Misty got up both burned and smoke coming off them.

"Wow what hit me?" Ash said rubbing the black of him.

"I think Pikachu zapped us." Misty replied both looking at him now where he hid.

-I am in for it now- Pikachu gulped.

"It was my fault I was teasing Ash," Misty said to the mouse pokemon "Come out no one's mad at you. You were just reacting to how I was teasing him."

Ash smiled "Well she admits it and I was caught in the middle, so come out and help us sat up camp Pikachu." Ash put his glove hand out to Pikachu and the yellow paw took it and Ash lifts him up hugging him.

-You're a real friend- Pikachu said happily not caring his trainer didn't understand what he said.

- - -

Later that day, Night falling...

Ash and Misty sat at the fire talking while Pikachu went to the lake and filled the water bottle up, he walked back to the camp drinking some of the water as he went up to the camp closing the lid.

-Hi Ash, I am back- Pikachu called out Ash turned facing right at him. Pikachu gasped dropping the bottle.

"What the matter Pikachu?" Ash asked and Pikachu was staring at his ears seeing Raichi ears not human ones on Ash head.

Pikachu closed his eyes and rubbed them then looked again to see normal human eyes -My eyes must be playing tricks on me- Pikachu said to himself then look at Misty as he drunk some more water then spat it out with shock again.

"Ash, Pikachu looks like he's seen a ghost," Misty said and this time Pikachu saw a Raichu tail sticking out of Misty but after closing his eyes and opening them there was nothing.

Pikachu looked at the bottle -this has me seeing things- Pikachu turned it over and the water pours out on the ground then he throw the bottle to the ground.

"Pikachu did the water taste funny?" Ash asked Pikachu moving up to him and kneeing down putting a hand out.

Pikachu looked and freaked out again -Raichu Paw!- he shouted and looked at Ash pointing his tiny paw finger at his hand Ash looked.

"What it's my hand Pikachu" Ash said and the yellow pokemon looked.

-I think I need to be sick to get rid of these seeing things- Pikachu dash off behind a bush and all the two humans heard is a sickening sound then Pikachu comming out of the bushes -Much better- Pikachu smiled.

"Time for bed pal," Ash said to him "Next time, check with me to see if the water is okay to drink, alright Pikachu?" Ash picked up Pikachu and he nods as Ash put him in his little sleeping bag, Ash and Misty going in their tents closing up for the night.

- - -

Morning Two Days Ago...

Pikachu woke up with a flash, hearing yelling and screaming from Ash and Misty from the lake they come running to the camp site in a rush what Pikachu saw almost made him hide in his sleeping bag hoping beyond hope that it was a dream.

"Pikachu!" Ash called out "Wake up!" Ash pleaded and Pikachu raise his head out of the sleeping bag to see Raichu ears on Ash and a tail on Misty. He looked Terrified at this sight with panic all over his face both ears twiching madly as they stood stright up.

"Something you did yesturday caused this, undo it, please" Misty begged holding Pikachu up.

Pikachu jumped out of her hands with sparks on his red cheek circles -A little zap should reverse this... I hope- Pikachu said.

"Don't!" Both said together but Pikachu zapped them with a tiny thunder shock.

Both looked at each other then Pikachu "Nothing happened..." Ash said to Pikachu.

"Look like a failed try..." Misty moaned.

Then when Ash was about to move his face felt odd. He touched it and felt fur.

"Ah! It's gotten worse!" Misty yelled, seeing Ash and falling on her kness then moved her legs forward so she was sitting.

Misty saw her legs starting to pull in, and her feet start to change to match the fur covered legs. The legs gained muscles when they pulled to her sides a little and her shoes she'd removed to see three toed feet, brown on the front parts, the rest orange  
fur. Her lower torso rounding out a hit with it matching the tail on her backside leaving mostly Raichu from feet to lower torso.

Ash on the other hand his hair was pulling in part from strains of it turned orange. His nose pulled in then pulled out with his jaw forming a snout with a black nose. His head changing shape with yellow circles appearing on both cheeks..

Pikachu seeing this, paniked even more -More power!- Pikachu charged up for a thunder attack.

As this happened Misty was changed from the waist down. Her torso on the lower half changed, she was looking back where her short jeans had torn away to see two brown stripes on her back with a long black tail with a yellow lightning shape at the end of it.

Ash was the other way around he had a Raichu face with orange fur all over it with the yellow cheek circles his hat still on his head held in place, since he was human size still and the large ears helping out. His upper torso was connected almost to his head directly with his neck now thick and wide to match it. His top torso having a cream white fur now with orange around it, he watched his fingers and thumbs pull in and the hand round out forming brown fur turning to a set of Raichu paws and the arms pulling back to become short.

"That shock speeded it up!" Ash freaked out then looked at Pikachu "Oh, no!"

Misty looked as well, "No, don't!" Misty yelled out "It will only speed it up!"

Misty was too late the thunder attack burst out of Pikachu hitting them both. He watched to see if it worked. As the lightning glow was around them changing both to the shape of a Raichu their feet to the tips of their heads no human on them only Raichu then both shrink to about a head taller and bit bigger then Pikachu they just fell over and out cold.

-This is the biggest mistake I could of done- Pikachu whispers to himself.

- - -

Later that day as the sun starts to set...

Ash and Misty slowly opened their eyes filling lightning fast energy going  
around inside them they say up and looked at each other eyes to se black  
eyes with a tint of brown "your a Raichu" Both said pointing a paw at each  
other.

"we still talk." Ash said looking for his hat getting up out of his now too  
big clothes moving with his hind legs and paws on the dirt, he found his hat  
and picked it up looking back at the Raichu paw prints he left behind  
looking down at his changed body as he held the hat he turn around to Misty.  
"ash cover yourself" Misty said looking away getting up with no clothes over  
her Raichu body she stepped out of them with her paw feet touching the  
ground.  
"But I got fur all over me like you. Your standing paws on the dirt with no  
clothes on part from your fur on your Raichu body" Ash replied.

Misty slapped him with a front paw since she and him can stand on two of their four paws. "Pervert!"

"I'm not!" Ash said back

"You are" Misty said louder in voice.

-You awake?- Pikachu said to them

"Thats weird, all I hear is Pika from him." Ash put his hat on but fell off, "Darn! My hat doesn't fit"

"Forget the hat we still tell the professor what happened and change us back", Misty took it and throw the hat to the ground.

Ash got angery and did a thundershock at her which surprised him.

"As you chu going Rai back for Raichu Rai rai chu!", Misty's voice no longer the same but a Raichu's.

Then Misty zapped him

"Misty thanks chu alot we chu Rai chu chu!" Ash said back now sound and speaking like a Raichu.

"Oh no no! you two stop doing that, it taking you one step closer to being a Raichu!" Pikachu pleaded to them both.

"Take this!" Both said and zapped each other but is was different.

"Wow this feels great!" Misty said raising her tail bending it to Ash over her head the lightning shape end moving to Ash's

"Yeah it does." he said back both tips of the end of the tails touching, forming the shape of a heart, electric energy going to Ash and then to Misty.

Both moved closer and rub cheeks together then run nose to nose putting their paws on one and another.

"Ash I feel like my humanity's leaving..." Misty whispers frantically as she felt her brain rearrange itself then a spark from the  
central part went through it and her eyes showed that her Transformation had finished.

"Yes Misty... I feel it too my... humanity being replaced by... a... Raichu", Ash's eyes showed the same final changes in his own mind and the signs showed when their tails wrapped around each other and they hugged each other closly to each other their fur torsos touching each other with their hind feet touching as sparks of lightning flowed around them.

"My sweet Electra" Ash whispered to her.

"Oh, Ash," They still embraced together with warmth in their own whispers to each other.

"Ash? Misty?" Pikachu cuts in with a questioned look on his yellow face.

They stopped and pulled away looking at him and Pikachu seeing only Raichu in the looks of the two set of eyes looking at him then the next thing they said shocked him.

"Mom and Dad to you, Jean Luc," Electra scrolled at him.

"Yes, son. How many times we told you not to come up to us when we having a bit of a loving peace to each other." Ash crossed his Raichu arms a bit just over each other.

Pikachu couldn't believe this his mouth hanging then he said "B..." then he felt dizzy and fell on his back fainting in disbelief.

- - -

Yesterday...

Pikachu slowly opened his eyes and sitting up rubbing his head then he looked to see tents was up still and a pile of clothes and some ripped he saw the hat and bite marks of a Raichu at points of it but carefully trimed parts of it.

"Ah! My first born son is finally awake! I did that for you squirt," Ash walked up to Pikachu who was looking with a open mouth at him and Ash rubbed his head with a paw "Wear it see how it fits. I've grown out of wearing it even it slipped one side when I was a Pikachu myself." Ash laughed a bit.

"Ash, please remember who you really are!" Pikachu pleaded to Ash..

"Now now, that's Dad to you son" he took the hat and put it over Pikachu's head and lower it with the ears going through the holes that was made it slipped almost over the eyes but sat in place.

"It fits perfect, sweetheart!", Electra said and Pikachu saw her sitting on a rock. She looked almost alike to Ash but Ash had slightly darker fur then her with her fur not sticking out on the top of her head not like Ash, "Jean Luc, you look just like your Father with that on!" Electra smiled

"Misty?" Pikachu hoped.

"You mean Electra, and that's Mom to you sweety. What the matter with you lately, son?" Electra tilted her head a bit

"This is crazy they only think themselves as Raichus, I can see it in their eyes... And to top it off, they think they're my parents." Pikachu whispers to himself then said "It fits. Well, thanks"

Ash smiled and pushed at Pikachu "Come on Jean Luc, lets see how you do with this" Ash jumped on Pikachu and they wrestled around. Pikachu was enjoying it but then 5 minutes in he knew he had to try everything to get them back but for now played with Ash, now that he thinks he's his dad.

- - -

Present day...

Pikachu finished his meal then looked wearing the hat Ash put on him "Yeah, I tried everything to splashing water and that failed with a waterfight with them." Two Raichus gaining up and making a big splash getting their son Pikachu wet. "Trying to slap them but... Trust me never try that if something happened to you like this... trust me... I ended up getting double thunderbolted as a punishment, now that was painful" Show Pikachu bring thunderbolted by them. "I try getting the others to help but that ended with them enjoying themselves even they knew Ash and Misty was changed, accepting their new mind and appearance" Shows the group of pokemon having a great time with Ash and Electra, Pikachu first sweetdroping as he  
watched, then joined in having fun. "Ok, I couldn't help myself but all my efferts nothing worked but one... even that don't work I will enjoy them being my parents" Pikachu then looked to his right.

"Here goes nothing," Pikachu breathed in "Mom, Dad! May, Max and Brock are here!"

"Cool!" Ash grinned holding a thunderstone behind his back with both paws

"Not fair that we are the only ones to be free of human skin and minds is it, dear?" Electra smirked.

"Let's do it."

Ash and Electra throw the thunderstones to the group, "Free your souls, be free of human skin and minds, forget it, remember being the Pichu and Pikachu you really are, like we have" Both said and zapped a thunderbolt at them.

"Not again!" Pikachu shook his head then smiled with the hat on his head, "Well like they say, 'Like father, Like Son' and I think I might like this." then he looked at his parents "Let me join in" Pikachu lanuching his own thunderbolt at the group.

The... End..?


	9. Pokémon Electrium

Pokemon Electrum

Disclaimer: We don't own... yada yada... so do not sue... blah blah.

Author Notes: Written by Rusty Raccoon.

----

We join Ash and his friends as they travel to a new city in the Jonto Region, planning to meet with a professor who claimed to know something about the enigmatic GS Ball.

Always curious and seeking adventure, Ash, was overjoyed at the concept of finally being able to open the ball. Knowing that anything could be inside of the ball, perhaps even a new species of Pokemon was incentive enough. If that were true, he'd be among the first to discover it!

It was a hot day; the sun beat down on Ash as though he were a turkey in an oven. Ash was tired from the journey. Despite his hope over the ball's potential, Ash still felt a pang of doubt; if this didn't pan out, they'd have come all this way for nothing! Jean-Luc was lying on Ash's shoulders, dirty and covered with sweat, much like his trainer. With their supplies low, Ash worried about Jean-Luc. At least MapleBrook would be a place to rest and relax even if the ball didn't open.

"Do you think Ho-Oh is there? Or maybe Celebi, Lugia, Mew or a Deoxys spawn! I know; maybe Jirachi went back in time and somehow got caught in it! Or it could be..." Max rambled on and on.

"If it's a Pokeball, why not just throw it open?" May asked curiously, leaning close to the silver & gold globe in Ash's hand.

"They're scientists, that's probably the first thing they tried," Ash said drolly.

"So, what else have they tried?" Max asked.

"I don't..."

Max didn't give Ash a chance to finish. "Did they try a saw or blowtorch? I know … why not _blast_ it open?"

"What if they get it open and a scary Pokemon comes out?" May asked, looking terrified at the thought.

Ash rubbed his eyes. "We'll be fine. I thought you weren't afraid of Pokemon anymore?"

"But what if this one is something to be afraid of?" she whined.

"What if it's some cool new type that we haven't seen before? We might be the first humans to ever see it!" Max beamed.

"It might be," Ash agreed.

"Or the first humans it ever eats," May added, clearly still worried.

Ash was too tired to make a retort. Looking towards the horizon, he saw the town they were heading for just past the next hill. He hoped that they were going to finally get this thing open. At least if it was something that would eat them, they'd get it over with so May would stop complaining on about it.

They walked the rest of the distance in relative silence. May and Max talked about all the possibilities of what was in the ball, while Ash just zoned out and silently wished Brock hadn't run off again.

---

They arrived in MapleBrook less then an hour later. Ash was tired enough to fall asleep then and there. Just as he found a ledge around a flowerbed to sit down on, he heard someone running towards him. He looked up just in time to see Jean-Luc leap from his shoulder's as a familiar redheaded girl glomp him hard enough to almost knock him into the flowers.

"Ash!" she yelled.

"Hey Misty," Ash replied dully.

The lad would have smacked himself for his lack of enthusiasm if he had the energy to.

Misty scowled at him. "Just 'hey Misty'?"

Ash smiled awkwardly. "I mean, hey Misty, it's great to see you. Sorry, it's been a long trip."

Misty, seeming to accept his apology, looked at Ash's travelling companions and gave them nods of recognition. She practically dragged Ash along with her as she told them everything that had happened to her in the interim. She also took the time to give Pikachu a chin rub, something the electric rodent loved.

"Oh sure, you love it when she does it," Ash growled. Pikachu just looked at Ash and stuck his tongue out.

Misty led the trio to a plaza at the centre of town. Tracey, Richie, Brock and some scientist-looking people Ash didn't recognise were sitting there, as if waiting for them. There was an unusual pedestal erected there as well.

Brock grinned. "Ah, you've arrived."

Ash was surprised. "Brock! What're you, Tracey and Richie doing here? Who are these other people?"

Brock shrugged. "I felt like I had to be here, for some reason. Any of us would tell you the same. So we dropped what we were doing and all came here."

Ash blinked, rather confused. "Uh…okay…"

Misty laughed and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Why else do you think I'm here, Ash?"

Ash blinked. "You felt you had to be here too?"

"Yeah…weird, isn't it?"

"Omigosh! Maybe…maybe the GS Ball called us all here!" Max yelled randomly. "So that we'd all be here when it's opened, and it EATS OUR SOULS!"

All sweatdropped. Pikachu hopped off of Ash's shoulders to talk to Sparky, who in his opinion was the most sensible creature in the plaza.

"I doubt that," one of the people Ash didn't know muttered.

"Well, I hope it's not true," Tracy murmured, fidgeting with one of his notepads. "How am I supposed to help Professor Oak at the lab if I've lost my soul? That'd be rather inconvenient."

Feeling humiliated, May laughed nervously and clamped a hand down on the struggling Max's face. "Ahahaha, ignore him, he's been watching too much television the poor thing, totally fried his brain." All sweatdropped again.

One of the scientist-looking people walked forward, attracting Brock and Ash's attention. (Brock's because she was a female and therefore worthy of his lust, his eyes bulging into hearts and his pants growing rather tight.) The scientist was a pretty young lady with long red hair tied back in a ponytail. She had glasses over clear grey eyes and a smile that Ash knew would only encourage Brock.

"I am Doctor Pine. This is my team," The doctor said, motioning towards the three other people behind her, all of whom acknowledged Ash with a nod.

"Hi," Ash said.

"Hello," Brock said to the Doctor, drooling visibly.

"Um ... hi," a disturbed Pine said back to Brock.

"Are you available for dinner?" Brock asked hopefully.

Pine grinned. "I think you're a little young for me. "

An annoyed Misty sighed and grabbed Brock by the ear, dragging him off and ignoring his wails and pleas to make love to the attractive scientist. All sweatdropped again, and Jean-Luc and Sparky both agreed humans were a rather silly bunch overall.

"Yes, well," Pine started. "We've been doing research and it seems that the key to opening the GS Ball is this pedestal. All we have to do is to put the ball on the pedestal and it should open."

"Sounds too easy," Ash said, doubtful.

She shrugged. "Perhaps, but there is only one way to find out," Pine said. She stepped aside, gesturing towards the pedestal. "Would you like to do the honours?"

Ash held out the GS Ball and nodded. He felt a little nervous when he turned to see that everyone was watching him.

"Here we go," he said uncharacteristically uneasily, stepping forwards.

He placed the ball on the pedestal. Almost instantly, the ball opened. A bright light bubbled out from inside of it and engulfed the area. The light drew all of Ash's friends and the startled scientists forward and into the ball, taking the light back with it before it closed. The process left the plaza still and devoid of life.

- - -

When the bright light faded. Ash found himself standing somewhere surrounded in fog.

"Hello?" he asked. His voice echoed through the apparent void. "Misty? Pikachu? Annnnnnnyone?"

The trainer found that all his Pokeballs were missing, something which worried him a great deal since it meant he truly was alone. Confident he'd find Misty, Pikachu, the others and escape route, Ash started walking around, hoping to run into someone or something.

Walking for a short distance, Ash did his best to keep his composure. He wouldn't be any good to his friends if he freaked out. If he lost control, the others that looked up to him would have little to keep them from panicking.

Something suddenly caught Ash's eye. Several lights appeared in the distance.

"Hello?" Ash asked. The lad felt dizzy and his skin itched.

_Where am I?_ It was Misty's voice. Yet, it seemed to come from within Ash.

_What's happening?_ This time it was Max's. Again, it seemed to be a voice in Ash's head.

"Am I going nuts here?" Ash asked.

He looked at the lights before him. They started moving. They changed colours, becoming blue, pink and green. The blue light flew towards Ash and hovered before him. He felt a sense of eternal happiness and joy from it. As he reached out to touch it, it zipped away. Ash could swear he heard it giggling like a Mew. This time the pink light zipped at Ash. It flew around Ash, and again, the lad heard giggling.

Ash followed the light as it bobbed and gyrated, feeling a sense of deep fascination from it. He held out his left arm and saw that multitudes of things were wrong. One, his sleeve and gloves had vanished and two, he had what appeared to be violet fur on his arm!

This time the green light flew at Ash. It circled him with the pink light. Both were giggling.

"Mew, is that you?" Ash asked.

Now all three lights flew around Ash. He seemed to float in mid air, as though there had never been a ground in the first place. It was then that he realised that with the exception of his hat, all of his clothes were gone! He looked at the lights and felt innocence from them. Indeed, he didn't feel naked anymore. What need did he have for clothes, anyway?

He wasn't floating anymore, but the ground felt different somehow. Ash couldn't explain it. It was as though he were nimbler. He felt itchy and warm again. He looked down at his body. The same violet fur from his arm was now all over his body.

_I wish Ash could see this, I feel so beautiful!_ Rang a familiar voice.

Ash looked around anxiously. "Misty?"

It felt as though Misty was in the room with Ash. The lad realised yet another thing, that he hadn't said the words, he'd thought them! How strange.

Ash felt a tingle in his head and above his rear end. The lights resumed floating in front of him. Feeling a strange desire to concentrate on them, Ash thought of the blue light moving. Much to his elation, the light moved in exactly the way Ash had pictured!

Something seemed to move behind Ash. He looked behind him and saw a tail, forked at the end, now grew from his rear. A tail, he had a tail!

Ash's entire body tingled. This was different from when his fur grew. He felt stronger; he noticed that he had developed a decent set of muscles to replace his rather flat chest. He didn't have quite a six pack, but he was formed enough that he felt stronger and more confident than before. Ash couldn't wait to show these off to Misty.

Finally, his legs and feet tingled as his feet angled up. Ash grinned as his feet changed from a human-like plantigrade to the digitigrade stance of his new species.

Looking back at the lights, Ash started concentrating on all of them. He was able to move them all with his thoughts. It was like a game, just as enjoyable for them as it was for him. Ash felt a presence; in fact, he felt more then one. There were people all around him. He could sense them!

A mirror appeared out of nowhere before Ash. His reflection was that of a humanoid Espeon. He had to admit to himself that he was rather handsome. He began posing in the mirror, admiring himself, when suddenly everything went white and Ash felt himself flying without warning out of the GS Ball.

- - -

Misty glared at the mists around her. What had Ash gotten her into this time? The answer came to her as the white light surrounding her faded and she found herself back home in Cerulean Gym! She was in the mermaid costume her sisters always made her wear for performances.

In addition, she was standing at the side of her pool. The stands were full of people all cheering for her.

"How did I get here?" she asked, frightened and severely disoriented.

The crowd just kept on cheering for her mindlessly. Had she been teleported back in time to some previous performance? Or was she in the right time but somehow all the way back home? Where had everyone else gone? Most importantly, where was Ash?

Looking at the water, she found that it felt oddly welcoming to her, more so than usual. Without thinking, she dove into it with a splash, arousing a loud cheer from the crowd.

Under the water, she spun around, moving up and down the tank far easier then she'd ever been able to. Her costume fit far better then it ever had as well. In fact, it should have been flying off with the moves she was doing, but it fit so snug and comfortably around her it almost felt like a second skin…no, a first skin, even. Also, she noticed that she was able to hold her breath for far longer then ever before.

Surfacing for air, Misty listened to the crowd cheer. Some even took pictures. She smiled happily, loving the attention, and floated in the water for several seconds to bask in their adoration before diving back under. The lower half of her costume, which moments ago had seemed so snug, suddenly felt loose and she could have sworn she felt it slip off her body and float away.

Oddly enough, she didn't feel nude or cold in the least. She looked back at her legs and saw that she had something else growing from her lower body. She had a thick tail, complete with blue scaly skin that looked just like the costume. She wondered if the costume's lower half had really fallen off.

She continued to swim around, her lower body feeling oddly free. The water felt great against her…skin. Her skin? She was feeling the water directly on her body! It wasn't cool at all, but warm and rather comfortable, as though it were home or something.

Panic would normally be setting in around this time. For some reason however, she felt joy!

Again surfacing, Misty revelled in the crowd's cheers. Everyone loved her, it was a wonderful sensation, and one she had never felt before and had been one of the causes of her envy for her sisters for ages.

Diving back under the water. Misty now felt the upper half of the costume loosen as well and finally slip off. She didn't seem to care, even when she saw that her torso skin had turned blue! It too felt comfortable in the water. Misty was happy to have the costume off. She didn't need it anymore anyway.

Now she flew through the water. The moves she was doing feeling so easy that it was almost a joke, A human swimmer would never have been able to pull off the same manoeuvres, regardless of skill. She felt a tingle in her head now. The sounds around her became louder as her ears seemed to grow and stretch outwards. Looking at her arms and hands, she saw that they were also covered in blue, scaly skin.

She surfaced one last time, finding that she no longer had hair. She did, however, still have her chest. If anything it was more mature, something that had been a long time coming. She didn't feel a need to shield herself, though. She was beautiful, and one does not need to hide their natural beauty. One more time, Misty submerged, this time she felt as though she could stay underwater indefinitely. She could breathe under the water! This was incredible! She seemed to be a Vaporeon, and yet she was still humanoid.

Misty loved water types and now she'd become one! It was a dream come true! As she continued to swim through the water, everything went white. She was finally going to see Ash again. She couldn't wait to show off her gorgeous new body to him.

- - -

Max didn't understand what was happening. From what he'd seen, he and the others had been sucked into the GS ball when it opened. However, that was impossible, a human couldn't be captured! Could it?

Before his mind could analyse what was happening, Max found himself in a hallway. Had he been teleported somewhere, perhaps even onto another world? Was any of this real?

"Is anyone here?" Max asked.

There was no response. With nothing else to do, Max started walking down the hall.

"I can handle this. I'm not a little kid. I won't panic!" he said, more to himself than to anyone else.

As Max walked, he heard sounds that seemed to come from within the walls. It was the sounds of children laughing, giggling and playing without a care in the world.

"Come and play Max!" a voice said.

"Play? I'm not a kid!" Max protested, trying to drown out the noises.

Max quickened his pace. The hallway seemed to stretch into eternity. He convinced himself that he wasn't going to be like a kid, panic or start skipping down the halls. Max shook his head; he was too old for that. He could be just as serious as big kids like Ash. No, Max was a big kid, but not a kid.

Eventually, Max came to the end of the hallway. There were five doors, each with pictures of stones on them. Max recognised them all; they were the fire, thunder, water, moon and sun stones.

"Which one do you want Max? Choose your destiny!" The voice sounded like May.

"What do you mean?" Max asked.

"Choose which door you want. Once you enter a door, there's no going back." Now it was Ash's voice.

Max looked at each of the doors. Did any appeal to him? He approached the fire stone door. It was very hot to the touch. The thunder stone door shocked Max, not painfully but enough that he knew he didn't want to try going through it. The water stone door, made him feel nervous, as though it might plunge him into the depths of the ocean--he's human, not a submarine. The moon stone door gave Max a sensation of being in darkness. Max was too old to be afraid of the dark. However, that much darkness was too much even for him. The sun stone door was the opposite, way too bright.

Max turned around and looked behind him. There was now a door in place of the hallway. As the lad approached it, he heard a child's laughter, like before! He wanted to resist it but something egged him on.

Reaching for the door, Max opened it and fell into pure light! He felt warmth, as though he'd stepped into a hot bath. In fact, it seemed he was dressed for such an occasion, as his clothes were gone!

Max seemed to land, albeit softly, in a room filled with children's dolls and other toys. His body was itching and he felt a little light-headed.

"Where am I? What happened to my clothes?" Max realised that his voice sounded as it had years ago and cupped his mouth. His face felt odd, fuzzy somehow.

Holding his hands out in front of his face, Max saw that brown fur was sprouting all over his arms and fingers! He tried to rationalise things, this couldn't be happening! His ears tingled; Max felt his head only to discover that, unless his hands were lying to him, his ears were getting much bigger and fuzzier!

Max shook his head only to start giggling. Why, he wondered, was this suddenly so funny?

Feeling a tingling about his rear, Max turned his head just in time to see a long bushy tail grow from his body.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh!" he said, trying not to giggle.

He grabbed his tail when it was fully-grown. It was warm and soft. Now he couldn't hold it in, he started giggling and felt an urge to play with been toys he was supposed to be too old for.

He grabbed at a teddy bear and danced around with it as his jaw and mouth tingled a little. Max licked his lips when his muzzle was finished growing. Finally, his legs and feet felt a little funny as his stance welt from plantigrade to digitigrade.

Max had to admit, he felt so light, nimble and soft! The little Eevee didn't have to grow up, not yet! Besides, growing up was for the big kids! Max knew he shouldn't have been thinking like this but he just couldn't resist it. It felt far too fun. Besides, it seemed he was a lot younger now and he was definitely smaller! It didn't seem like he was too old for this stuff any more. Before the young Eevee could further consider this, his world turned to pure light. Reluctantly, he said goodbye to the playroom…for now.

- - -

Brock found himself surrounded by white light. That cute scientist was gone! She really liked him. He just knew it!

Before he could think anything else, the world around Brock focused and he appeared at the side of a pool. There was a trio of girls, no, women, on the other side!

"I know they'll all love me!" Brock said joyously. The women took one look at Brock, but didn't seem interested.

"Such foxy ladies!" Brock had no idea why he'd said that. It just seemed the right thing to say for some reason.

As Brock finished saying that, two rather strange things happened. One, all of his clothes and those of the women before him vanished, leaving Brock with a view he was deliriously to see and that he _knew_ they'd be happy to see.

Brock also saw white fur begin to sprout all over the women's bodies! Brock stood there in confusion, wondering what was happening, when he felt an itch and warmth on his belly. All of the women were still ignoring him! Brock looked down at his belly; white fur was growing all over it as well! He'd be brave and act like everything was fine. They'd know he was there to rescue them, show their gratitude by making sweet love to him in a group and fulfilling some of his wildest dreams! Or so he told himself.

As he walked around the pool, he saw the fur on their bodies spreading. It moved down to their legs and up around the rest of their torsos. This was bad enough, but then Brock noticed something weird, so weird he had to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things. A long white tail grew out from just over each of their rear ends!

_Hey, didn't I just feel a..._

Brock looked down and then back. The same thing was happening to him. This was...impossible; he had fur and a tail. He could feel the thing!

"Don't worry ladies; I'm going to save you!" Brock cried, hoping that somebody would also be able to save _him_.

All three women just looked at Brock. This time they giggled before looking away. Brock, feeling somewhat hurt and embarrassed, now watched as the fur covered the rest of their bodies, and then they all sprouted two additional tails. Brock felt the same happening to himself. Trying to ignore this lest he go insane from fear, he kept running.

Soon, he was right in front of them. He beamed at their bodies. They were gorgeous, even more beautiful than they had seemed from a distance! He stood there, amazed that they were letting him see their goddess like figures. His mind was almost on overload, as was his member. Girls usually rejected him (or didn't get the chance to, thanks to Misty); something about these ones must mean that they knew they were perfect for him! They were just too scared by what was happening to act upon that knowledge!

Brock watched four more tails sprout from the women's bodies, again feeling the same happening to him. It was obvious now what was happening to them, they were becoming Ninetales, but humanoid ones! He knew how powerful Ninetales were, if three of them loved him this much, he must be very handsome indeed. In fact, if he was becoming a Ninetales man, he'd be even more perfect for them!

It was then that Brock's dream-like world took an interesting turn. He watched the faces of the women pull out into muzzles as their human ears vanished into their bodies, and pointed ears emerged at the tops of their heads. Their hair turned white and lengthened all the way down to the middle of their backs. Brock could feel the same happening to him. Then he realised, to his confusion, that his chest and groin felt odd.

He looked down to see a pair of breasts growing on his chest! Between the legs, the sight he was used to seeing was changing drastically. His pride and joy was growing shorter and it felt as through something were burrowing into his body. It didn't hurt; although knowing what was probably happening to him wounded his pride more then enough!

"No, stop it, I'm not a girl!" he cried, never feeling more terrified in his life.

"You're beautiful!" one of the women said with a grin.

"Just wait until we get you a nice red bikini," another said.

"No, I'm not a girl!" Brock protested desperately, noticing his voice was now higher pitched.

Filled with fear, he looked up at the Ninetales women and then back down at his body. Anything that made Brock a he was gone. For a short few seconds, Brock stopped being afraid and upset, instead feeling excited about having access to those female parts all of the time. But then, he felt a little dizzy. When it faded, the Ninetales women weren't attractive to him anymore. They were still extraordinarily beautiful, but on a different level now. With horror, Brock realised that he didn't find women the least bit attractive any more!

He tried to fight it, especially when a mirror appeared in front of him, showing the view of a Ninetales woman so beautiful that it should have made him melt. Now, he knew that he could have any man! His mind tried to process the irony of becoming what he'd sought after for so long and also becoming part Pokemon, failed, and focused on how pretty he was.

As the world started to go white, Brock wondered if he'd find a male Ninetales as beautiful as he, no she was. Then she realised that was impossible, she was much too gorgeous, but she was sure she'd manage somehow.

- - -

May saw the light rushing towards her and the others. She was unable to react before she felt herself being drawn into the ball. Her body seemed to disappear, as though she were becoming one with the ball.

Light surrounded her. She tried to call out but nothing happened. Before she lost hope, everything came back into focus.

She found herself standing in the centre of a ring surrounded by various things that she assumed were for some sort of performance. The ring was surrounded by stands filled with Pokemon.

"Hello? Max, Ash? Where is everyone?" she yelled out, very much afraid.

The crowd began to cheer, as though they had expected her. A spotlight shined down on her, causing her to flinch and shield her eyes. Rings throughout the stage caught on fire. May felt a sudden urge to run at and jump through them. She moaned pathetically and began to sweat nervously and trembled as her stomach burned.

"How did I get here? What's happening?" May whimpered.

The crowd cheered her on. May wasn't sure why, but she ran towards one of the hoops and jumped at and though it! She felt the flames kiss her body as she passed through the hoop apparently unburned. Although she managed to land on the other side on her feet, her flirtation with eternity left her unnerved.

"D...did I just do th-that?" she asked as she looked back at the hoop.

Two additional hoops in front of her beckoned her. Feeling a little more confidant, she ran at them. As she leapt, her body tingled. She still felt the flames as she passed through the hoops. However, this time they didn't seem to be quite as hot. If anything, they were starting to energise her.

Landing on her feet, she looked at her arms. She saw what seemed to be red-orange hair starting to grow on them!

"What's that?" she asked.

"Catch!" came a voice from May's left.

Instinctively, May held out her arms and caught three sticks about as long as her arms that were lit on both ends. She tried to resist freaking out; these things could scold her! Somehow, someway, she knew she had to juggle them. As though she were gaining juggling lessons, she began doing just that. Initially, she felt nervous with every catch. However, she started growing more confident to the point where she was able to do more advanced manoeuvres with the sticks, as if she had used them all her life.

The orange hairs on her arms grew longer as May's juggling skills progressed; thickening to the point where she had a pelt of what was obviously fur on both arms.

May caught the sticks, seeing that they were now completely ablaze. As odd as it was, the fire didn't hurt her hands at all!

_What's g...going on? Why do I have fur? Why doesn't the fire hurt me?_

The rest of May's body was beginning to itch. She felt a desire to rip her clothing off. _No, I won't be naked. That's disgusting! They'll all see me. Does this happen to everyone that juggles fire sticks?_

The spotlight on May moved to her left, and she looked to see a raised platform with the top opening to reveal burning coals! _Oh no, I am not walking on those!_

Looking around the crowd for her human friends to help her, May saw that everyone was cheering for her. It felt wonderful and made her want to be part of the performance, stripping her fears away almost supernaturally fast.

With a determined sigh, May dropped the sticks into a water bucket to her right that hadn't been there a minute ago. She turned to her left to face the coals. _I can do this. This is my show; I'm a part of it._

Taking her shoes and socks off, May threw them aside. She marched towards the coal platform and stepped onto it. Taking one more look in the crowd, she found the spotlight on her.

Summoning all of her courage May stepped onto the coals. As she did, her feet felt strange. She looked down to see them turning orange, no; they were becoming covered in orange fur! She knew that the heat should have burnt any fur, yet it actually was somehow making the fur grow! Her feet shifted before her eyes into larger, thick, three toed digitigrade feet. They actually looked rather cute and pudgy. Now the coals didn't hurt at all. They actually felt good!

May walked across them. The wave of change consumed her legs in a ring of fire. When it reach her pants, they became one with the ashes and smoke that surrounded her. May didn't mind however as brilliant orange fur had coated her legs. With her arms raised high, May almost danced across the platform.

By the time she was on the other side, she had furry legs. Now, she felt energised and stronger than ever.

There were three more flaming hoops before her, lined up in a row. With a smile on her face, she ran at, leapt towards, and sailed though them. As she passed through them, she felt the rest of her body change. Her hair grew even longer and turned a brilliant yellow as it reached midway down her back. Her ears lengthened into long orange-furred ears. Her face pushed out into a short muzzle, her teeth growing sharp and pointy.

Finally, orange fur coated her torso as her shirt burned away. The upper half of her torso had a light yellow puff over it, giving her some level of modesty. Lighter orange fur coated her chest and belly.

To top it off, a tail about as long as her legs blossomed from just above her rear end. She felt it growing as she gained the new sensations it offered her.

She landed on her feet and bowed before the audience. A mirror appeared in front of her, allowing her to see her new form.

She'd become an anthro Flareon, she even had a cute little belly button. Beaming, May wondered how this new form would assist her in the contests in which she'd no doubt soon participate.

At that thought, her entire world went white.

- - -

Rebecca, one of Professor Pine's assistants, saw her entire world fade away in a beam of light and energy. At first, she thought she was dead or dreaming. Had she really been sucked into that Pokeball? Could that really happen to a human?

When the sea of white around her faded away, Rebecca was standing at the top of a mountain. The air was cool and crisp. A light breeze blew around her. Looking into the horizon, she could see for what seemed like eternity.

"Wow, what a rush. Did we really get sucked into that thing?" It was the voice of her fellow assistant and friend Val.

"Val?" Rebecca asked, turning around to see her friend.

Val nodded. He walked up to her side and took her right hand in his left. "Wherever we are, the view is incredible. Looks like its dawn. Why don't we watch the sun rise?"

Rebecca nodded. "Are we in the ball?"

"Looks like it."

The sun began to rise over the horizon. At first, it was just a sliver of light, but it grew brighter as the sun crept up over the mountains in the distance. Rebecca's right arm itched, as did her chest.

"Aren't we supposed to try to get out? Or should we research this place? Where are all of the others?" Rebecca asked.

The sun rose higher, the land before them growing brighter.

"Let's stay a while," Val answered.

The itching spread around Rebecca's torso. She looked to see that white fur was growing all over her right arm. The same fur was growing on Val's left.

"Um Val, something's happening to us."

As the sun slowly inched its way higher into the sky, Rebecca's body felt itchier. She watched the white fur completely cover her right and Vic's left arm.

"It feels warm. It's a great view," Val said.

The sun rose higher. Rebecca felt something brush against her shoulders. Looking, she saw silky white hair touching them! Her hair was short and definitely not white, or at least it hadn't been the last time she checked. Now it was growing all the way down to her waist. She heard a rustle from Val's direction and looked at him. His hair was growing as well but not quite as long. She wasn't sure when he'd had the time to take it off but his shirt was gone. The white fur was spreading across his chest, which was starting to look more muscular than she remembered.

Rebecca felt a breeze. She looked down to see that her shirt had vanished. She still had her bra on, however. She could see the same white fur cover her chest!

The sun rose higher into the sky, starting to bathe the duo in warm light.

"What's going on?" Rebecca asked.

"I'm not sure, but ... it feels good," Val said.

Rebecca looked at Val. She trusted him and felt that whatever was happening, he wouldn't be this calm if it were dangerous. A peace came over Rebecca.

By now, their entire torsos were covered in fur. Rebecca had to admit that Val looked great. Then, she saw something perhaps slightly embarrassing. Val's pants faded away, underwear and all! Rebecca tried not to look, although she felt a great temptation to. She felt a breeze and had a feeling her attire was equally lacking now.

Looking back at herself, Rebecca saw the white fur spreading down past her groin and onto her legs. She felt a tingle above her rear.

"Maybe we should..." Rebecca wanted to say they should go but she felt at peace watching the sunrise.

A long bushy white tail sprouted from Val. Rebecca felt something new behind her, she looked back to see that she had the same addition.

Another tail grew, then two more as Rebecca watched Val's face begin to reshape. His human ears vanished into his head, a pair of pointy ears replacing them as they poked out from his luxurious hair.

Soon, they had six tails, then seven, then eight and finally nine. Nine tails, the fur, the tails, they were becoming Ninetales. Yet, they didn't seem to go further then humanoid. They were a perfect blend of their former and new species.

Rebecca turned to face Val as he turned towards her. They wrapped their arms around each other and embraced as the sun reached the top of the sky, bathing them both in warm and inviting sunlight.

"I've never seen a more beautiful sight," Val said.

"Nor have I," Rebecca replied.

As they kissed, their entire world faded once more.

- - -

Pikachu, known to some (but not Ash) as Jean Luc hated the idea of being in a Pokeball. He didn't understand why the others let humans captured them.

But, it was too late, the ball had captured him and somehow Sparky as well!

Jean Luc wasn't sure what it would look like inside. Sparky might have however. When everything came back into focus, Jean Luc was standing with Sparky in some random woods. Ash and the others were nowhere in sight.

"Ash, where are you?" Jean Luc asked.

"I don't see them anywhere. Richie is gone too," Sparky said worriedly.

"Sparky?" Jean Luc's fellow Pikachu nodded. "Is this what it's like in a Pokeball?"

"Some of them. But I've never been in one with anyone else before."

All around them, the bushes began to rustle. Jean Luc watched other Pikachu emerge from the bushes. First there were half a dozen of them, then ten, and then thirty. All where looking at Jean Luc and Sparky, seeming rather excited to see them.

"Have any of you guys seen our human friends?" Jean Luc asked.

The other Pikachus started talking very loudly all at once, all saying how happy they were to see Jean Luc and Sparky. The two of them were overwhelmed and unsure of what to do when they heard the sound of thunder nearby.

Jean Luc knew that if too many Pikachu gathered in one place that it could cause a thunderstorm. This fear came true as blue sky above them become covered in black clouds. Soon, it was raining and lighting was flashing in the sky.

"We have to get out of here!" Sparky yelled.

"I thought this isn't supposed to be real?" Jean Luc asked.

"What if this is a special ball?"

All of the other Pikachu fled, leaving Jean Luc and Sparky alone. Jean Luc was about to recommend that the two of them find shelter when a bolt of blue lighting fell from the sky and struck Sparky, knocking him onto his back. Jean Luc was about to run over to Sparky to see if he was all right when another bolt of blue lightning flew from the sky and struck him. It made his body tingle as the force of it knocked him to the ground.

"Ouch!" Jean-Luc yelled.

He managed to stand up and run over to Sparky, who was getting up.

"What happened?" Sparky asked.

Jean Luc noticed something was off. The forest seemed to be getting smaller. His body tingled more. He didn't have time to ask what was happening when two more bolts of lightning flew from the sky, striking both Pikachus again!

Standing up, Jean Luc saw that the forest really was getting smaller. He also saw that Sparky's torso was growing more slender. His legs were moving to the bottom of his torso and getting longer. Jean Luc lost his balance and looked at his own body, seeing the same thing was happening to it!

"What's happening to us?" Sparky asked worriedly.

Jean Luc noticed that Sparky had said that in Ash's language and not their own. "I don't know," he answered.

Feeling a wave of dizziness and nausea, Jean Luc could feel his internal organs shifting around. The sensation was disturbing and painful, but seemed to fade quickly. He didn't want to look at his body out of fear of what it may have become. He instead looked at Sparky. His friend now had a torso that was shaped like a human's. Sparky's arms were growing longer and his feet looked like human feet!

Jean Luc finally gathered up the courage to look at his own body and saw that he appeared similar to his friend. Jean Luc managed to stand up and walk over to Sparky. When Jean Luc's arms were long enough, he reached down and helped Sparky to stand up. As he did that, Jean Luc felt as though he'd been working out. Where the knowledge of how that felt came from, he wasn't sure.

Muscles appeared around Jean Luc's body and to his surprise, on Sparky's as well. Within a few minutes, Jean Luc had a well-defined humanoid figure complete with a six pack. He wasn't quite a body builder, but was still strong.

"What happened to us?" Sparky asked.

"I think we...we've become humanoid!" Jean Luc answered.

"Why do I know what means?" Sparky asked.

"I don't know. Why do I know stuff Ash would know?" Jean Luc asked.

"Maybe that ball made us smarter too!" Sparky joked.

His friend nodded. "Like reading a bunch of books but without the reading," Jean Luc said.

Sparky giggled. "We're like humanoid Pikachu brothers now!"

The storm above the duo ended as quickly as it had begun, revealing a blue sky.

"Just wait until Ash and Richie see us," Jean Luc said. As if on cue, the world around them turned white.

- - -

White light surrounded Richie and seemed to grab him. He felt the light pull him towards the GS ball. He was unable to resist it. His very body lost its form somehow and the world around him faded away.

For a few seconds, Richie was floating in a world of pure white, the only sound the beating of a heart.

"Hello?" Richie asked.

"It's bath time Richie," his mother said.

Richie looked towards the source of the sound to see his mother standing before him. When he turned again, he was in his bedroom at home.

"Aww, do I have to?" Richie asked.

"Yes dear," his mother said.

"Okay," Richie answered unhappily.

Richie walked out of his room and into the bathroom. He had no idea how he'd arrived at his home. However, everything seemed to make since. Was he dreaming, hallucinating perhaps?

Closing the door, Richie started to undress. When he was in his underwear, he walked over to the bathtub and turned the water on. Instead of water pouring out, energy streamed from the faucet. It was a brilliant array of blue, green and pink light.

Somehow, someway it seemed perfectly logical to Richie, as though this was how his bathtub should be. Richie watched the energy filling the tub. He stuck his right hand in and felt a tingling sensation. When he withdrew his hand, he saw what was almost like a visual echo. His human hand was still there, but around it, Richie saw an aura of a paw-like hand covered in yellow spiky hair, like that of a Jolteon. The image faded as fast as it had appeared, leaving Richie feeling almost sad that it was gone.

"You in the bath yet Richie?" his mother asked.

"Not yet Mom," Richie responded.

The energy had filled the tub and Richie removed his underwear. He stepped into the tub and lay back, allowing the energy to flow all over his body.

As strange as it was, the bottom of the tub seemed to vanish. Richie, however, floated as though the energy were supporting him. His entire body tingled, electricity flowing all around and through it. The sensation didn't hurt at all. It felt like a massage.

Richie watched the echo-like image return, but this time all over his body. In place of skin, he saw yellow spiky fur. Toed digitigrade paws replaced his feet. A spiky furred tail appeared from his rear.

His ears tingled, as did his jaw. A mirror appeared on the ceiling of the bathroom, allowing Richie to see the image of what he could only describe as an anthropomorphic Jolteon over his human body. Richie soon realised that the Jolteon image was becoming clearer and his human body was fading.

Instead of panic however, he felt a sense of release. He didn't try to get out of the tub.

As the Jolteon image grew stronger, Richie could actually move its parts. Mobility led to his being able to actually feel the fur and tail.

His human form was soon the echo and his anthro Jolteon body his real form. Seconds later, the human form faded and Richie, feeling clean and refreshed, climbed out of the bath.

The former human looked in the mirror at his reflection. He felt strong and confident.

"I'm done my bath Mom," he said.

He felt no need to cover himself. When he opened the bathroom door, he stepped into the same sea of light as before. A sensation of belonging and anticipation nearly consumed him as he seemed to be drawn out of wherever he was.

- - -

Professor Pine experienced what should have been impossible. Not only had the GS Ball opened, it had apparently drawn her and the others into it! Humans couldn't be captured, it was impossible. Yet, here she was, apparently inside the ball!

_Fascinating. I have to study this, experiencing everything I can. This will surely make for a paper in the MapleBrook science chronicle!_

The professor was surrounded by a sea of white. She seemed to be floating in nothingness. She couldn't quite see her body, if she even had one while within the ball. She tried to recall something, hoping that it might somehow affect the environment when the light around her began to fade. Before she knew what was happening, the professor was in a small cabin in the woods.

_Amazing, it even smells real._

On a desk were notes of hers and a mask of a Persian. She remembered studying wild Persian years ago. While she didn't recall the mask, she had a strange compulsion to put it on. Acting on that urge, she placed it over her head, immediately feeling a sense of well being and protectiveness. Somehow, she knew that it would make her fit in.

She left her cabin and immediately knew where she was.

The woods felt just as she remembered them. It was eerie but at the same time fascinating. As Pine walked, her skin itched and she felt stronger. Her senses also sharpened.

_Maybe a side effect of the ball. I'll have to endure it so we know why this happens._

It occurred to her that her assistants Rebecca and Val were not there. She wanted to call out their names, but something prevented her.

_If I yell, I might frighten off the Persians, or worse yet, they might attack me._

Pine continued to walk. She could smell the Persian near her. She didn't remember detecting them this way before. Strangely enough, it felt natural, as though she was meant to locate Pokemon this way.

She followed their scent to a clearing. When she found them, she ducked behind a bush downwind so they would smell her. There were a half dozen of them all lying down. They were all as beautiful as she remembered.

_Magnificent creatures. Strange, why does the mask feel so loose? Did it fall off?_

Feeling her face, she found fur in place of mask. Her mane (that is, her hair, she wasn't sure why she thought it was a mane) which was in a ponytail, was now loose and now ran down over her shoulders. they appeared slimmer and leaner than before. She observed the Persians, taking mental notes of their actions.

A breeze blew and she realised it would carry her scent and give away her position. She readied herself for a potential battle and unsheathed her claws.

_Claws, where did they come from and why did they seem natural? This is amazing, it's like I really have them!_

Her lab coat blew in the breeze and she threw it off, the garment vanishing as it hit the forest floor.

New instincts and thoughts flew into her mind, perhaps the ball had given her information to make this experience all the more authentic. She wondered why she was wearing clothes. Her brethren would find it unusual for her to dress as a human.

_Wow, I'm really getting into this._

Although she knew or at least believed this was all in her imagination, it felt so real that she might was well have been there. Closing her eyes, she willed the rest of his clothes off. Standing, she opened her eyes and looked down at herself.

She beamed with sharp teeth at her pink fur. Something, however, was still missing. She felt something tickle just above her rear end. New sensations entered her mind from behind him. She knew it was her tail growing out. She flicked it back and forth proudly. If this wasn't real, there was no harm in enjoying it. Standing on what then changed from plantigrade to digitigrade feet, the professor felt younger, and more energetic then ever.

A mirror appeared in front of her. Her image was that of a handsome and strong anthro female Persian.

_Fascinating, it's as though I truly am half Persian. This feels good, it's a shame I can't stay this way. It'd make an interesting study and experience._

All of the other Persian could see Pine. Now however, it was okay. She was one of them. They were her brothers and sisters as much as the humans were. As she approached them with confidence, everything went white.

- - -

Everything happened far too fast for Tracey to react. Energy surrounded him like tendrils and his body felt strange. A second later, he was surrounded by white light and seemed to be drawn into something.

He didn't have time to react before finding himself in a cabin in the woods. Sunlight streamed in from the windows.

"Wha... where am I?" he asked dazedly.

Tracey looked around the cabin and then went outside to look some more. There was no one here besides him. He was dreaming, or had he really been drawn into that ball? Was that even possible?

Looking back into the cabin Tracey saw something on one of the walls, it was a painting! He walked over to it and saw that it was of a field in the daytime.

Something about it didn't seem right, it seemed…unfinished. Tracey couldn't place his hand on exactly why, but he had to fix it. Looking to the right, he saw a table with a paintbrush and assorted supplies. Where it had come from, Tracey had no idea. Now, he didn't seem to care.

He picked up the brush and began working on 'fixing' the painting. He painted over the sky, making it black and full of stars. He then painted over the sun, making it a brilliant full moon.

Finally, he made the ground darker, to indicate it was night.

Tracey looked at his work, feeling a sense of satisfaction. It was then that he noticed that the painting seemed to somehow be coming to life! The stars began to twinkle and the moon started shining.

"Wait a minute ... that's impossible!" he said.

As the moonlight hit him, he felt dizzy. His entire body itched. Looking at his arms, Tracey saw black fur sprouting all over them. His tailbone and the top of his head ached. He felt stronger, as though he'd been doing heavy lifting for some time. His clothes felt confining and indeed, his body was starting to press against them.

The fur on his arms was getting thicker by the second! The sunlight streaming in from outside darkened. Birds no longer sang, the chirps of crickets replacing them.

The light from the painting followed Tracey somehow as he tried to get away from it.

"It's changing me ... I don't know how, but it is!"

Tracey panicked and ran outside, only to see that the moon and starts were now out. The real moonlight only increased the rate of change in Tracey's body.

His shirt split down the seams of his sleeves, revealing a pair of yellow circles on the upper half of his arms. His shorts split, showing that he not only had black furred legs, but the same circles on his thighs! He knew where those circles came from; he'd seen them on Umbreon before!

The circles began to glow under the moonlight as something tore through the back of Tracey's shorts. Looking back, he saw a long black furred tail with a yellow stripe near the end; it too glowed.

His shirt then split down the middle of the front, revealing a black furred and well-toned chest. Tracey tore the remains of his shirt off with what were now strong arms. He saw that he had a six-pack and well-defined figure underneath. He liked what he saw.

Feeling the top of his head, Tracey found long pointed ears. He saw the glow on his hands from the bands on his ears.

His shorts were feeling confining now. Tracey wanted them off. With a motion that his new muscles almost made a joke, Tracey tore the shorts off and threw them aside. Under the human shackles were strong legs. His shoes were the only vestiges of his humanity left.

His feet were beginning to change and he knew that shoes would soon be pointless. Quickly untying the shoes, Tracey tossed them aside as his changing feet tore through his white socks.

With fascination, Tracey watched his feet become digitigrade and shift into thicker, stronger three-toed feet. He quickly tore off what little of his socks remained.

Feeling his forehead, he touched his bandanna. It seemed out of place, but he decided to keep it for now.

A breeze blew through the area and ruffled Tracey's fur as he stared up at the full moon. He felt whole, complete and powerful. He was an anthro Umbreon. He liked how it felt.

Before he could further contemplate how this happened or why, his entire world went write.

When he reappeared before the pedestal in town, everything was it as was, expect for one detail. He was still an Umbreon!

Turning around, Tracey saw that he was not the only one the GS ball had changed.

- - -

After Ash's world went white, he felt as though he were flying. He seemed to land on solid ground before his world came back into focus. His mind reeled as his body underwent the change from light and energy into a physical form.

He found himself standing back in the square. His mind came back into focus, the memory of what had happened to him and the others now clear as day.

It took Ash's mind several seconds to register that something was very wrong. His body wasn't his own. He was still an Espeon person! Everyone that had been in the area had apparently been changed as well. There was a male Umbreon, Jolteon and Eevee, a female Flareon and Vaporeon, two female Ninetales, a male Ninetales and a female Persian. Finally, there were two male Pikachu. All were humanoid, just like Ash!

Ash cocked his head. He remembered who was in the plaza before this had happened and realised that there was a discontinuity in the genders. There was one more female and one less male. In fact, one of the female Ninetales was obviously freaked out.

There was something else; Ash could feel more from everyone. It was as though they were saying something else besides what they were speaking aloud. As well, he could sense their emotional state. Ash sensed confusion from everyone, especially that female Ninetales and the two Pikachu.

"Pikachu?" Ash somehow knew his Pikachu's name ... Jean Luc. "Jean Luc?"

"Ash, is that you?" Jean Luc asked.

"Ash, what happened to us!" It was Misty, and she was yelling.

The teen assumed that Misty knew it was him based on their clothing. Most everyone in the group had torn clothing, the remains of what they were wearing before all of this happened. Ash took another look at that Ninetales. She was wearing Brock's clothes! Her pants were all but destroyed, but her shirt was still intact.

"Ash, I thought this wasn't real! How am I supposed to explain this?" It was May's voice.

"Fascinating, somehow that ball transformed us," it was the professor's voice.

"Professor, what happened? I'm a Ninetales!" It was the professor's assistant Rebecca.

Ash turned in a direction allowing him to face the group and backed up so he could see everyone "Um..."

"Ash!" Misty yelled. Ash saw that she'd become the Vaporeon.

Ash felt something tug at his pants. He looked down to see the Eevee looking up at him. He sensed a need from the kid. Reaching up, Ash picked the Eevee up.

"Are you my dad?" the fox asked.

Ash blinked. "Um ... Max is that you?" he asked.

"Max? What happened to you? What happened to me? I'm a freak ... or am I beautiful?" May yelled.

"Oh God, I'm a girl!" It was the female Ninetales in Brock's clothes.

Misty turned around, Ash having to jump over her tail to avoid it hitting his legs.

"Looks like your little... obsession caught up with you."

"This isn't funny!" Brock cried.

"Calm down before you end up burning your clothes off!" Misty said. "Or what's left of them anyway."

"Fascinating, it not only changed your species but your gender as well. I had no idea the GS ball had such power!" Pine said.

Brock, now in frustrated tears, fell to her knees. "It's not fascinating, I'm a girl!"

"Calm down, being a girl isn't so bad," Misty said. Ash sensed that Misty, while finding the situation amusing, didn't want to be cruel. He watched her put a comforting hand on Brock's right shoulder. "At least you don't have to go far to see a girl now."

"Are you my daddy now?" Ash looked down at the Eevee in his arms. He felt something from the child. Max was definitely younger and seemed to trust Ash.

"I ... I'm ... um ... Misty, help?" Ash said.

"Hey, he's still my brother!" May said angrily.

Ash saw that the other two Ninetales had joined Brock. He sensed compassion from the male and a sense of playfulness from the female. Poor Brock seemed torn between excitement and panic.

"Ash!" Jean Luc yelled.

Jean Luc! With so many people around him, Ash was losing track of conversations.

"Wow, Sparky is that really you?" Richie asked.

Ash saw Sparky nodding. He and Richie seemed to be okay, so Ash was able to turn his attention to Jean-Luc.

"Sorry I ... this is confusing," Ash said.

"You think you're confused?" Jean Luc asked.

"You're still cute Pikachu," Misty said with a smile. Her expression and emotions became that of concern. "Just don't zap me okay?"

Jean Luc smiled and nodded. "Ash, why did this happen to me?"

"I don't know."

Ash handed Max to Misty, who seemed taken with the boy.

"Hey, weren't you guys listening when I said that's my brother!" May yelled. She was ignored by all.

"So many new forms to draw," murmured Tracey in awe.

Ash looked at the Umbreon and saw he was holding a pad and appeared to be sketching everyone's new forms.

"Don't make me Water Gun you!" Misty said.

"Why do I always have to be the peacemaker?" Jean Luc asked, rolling his eyes.

Everyone looked in Jean-Luc's direction. His cheeks were already sparking. That seemed to be enough to get everyone to calm down.

"Are you okay Max?" May asked.

Ash sensed that May was genuinely concerned for her brother.

"You guys are a Vaporeon and Espeon. May is my sister. So, I must come from Ash and Misty!" Max said cheerfully.

"Oh great, it brainwashed him!" May said.

"Max?" Misty asked.

This was strange for Ash; he seemed to know the answer to the question. Sensing other's thoughts and emotions was going to be hard to get used to.

_This is neat; I know what an Eevee thinks now! I know I used to be a human boy but I'm not one now_. The thought appeared to be from Max.

"Great, how are we going to explain this to Mom and Dad?" May asked.

_I don't want Dad to use me in battle! I'm safer here as Ash's son_. Again, a thought from Max.

"My Mom probably won't even notice anything's different," Ash said as he rolled his eyes.

"My sisters will want to use me in their show," Misty said.

"Ash, can I still battle?" Jean-Luc asked.

"Yeah, does Sparky have to stop now? Can I battle alongside him?" Richie asked.

"All fascinating questions I'd love to know the answers to," Pine said.

May frowned "Great, if you're his parents then..."

"I think we can make an exception there," Misty replied.

Ash giggled and then looked at Jean-Luc. "I think we're going to have to ask about that. Either way, you're still my best bud. I even know what your name is now!" Ash gave Jean-Luc a hug.

Ash looked into the rest of the crowd when he released Jean-Luc. Brock was now looking at what was a handsome muscular male Ninetales. Rebecca was talking about how she and Brock would now be sisters and a pair of wives for Val. Ash sensed that Val, while finding his new form unusual, was willing to entertain it. Perhaps it was Val's scientist side. Brock seemed to almost love the idea of being around a female Ninetales lady all of the time. In fact, she seemed to be starting to fawn over Val. _Same old Brock. At least he, heh, she's happy now_.

Professor Pine was sizing everyone up; Ash sensed the woman's fascination not only with her new form, but with everyone else's. No doubt, Pine would be asking a lot of questions, as would everyone else in town and around the world.

"Well, Ash, looks like we can finally have that wedding we always wanted," Misty.

"Wedding?" Ash said, looking right at Misty in confusion and more than a little fear.

Tracey suddenly snapped his fingers. _Hey, I can't wait to show this to Oak. Maybe I can convince him to do the same!_

"Speaking of which," Ash said. He walked over to the pedestal and picked up the GS Ball. "I'll make sure you're kept in a safe place"

"I don't think Oak is ready to rush into this Tracey," Ash said.

"How did you know I--?" Tracey asked.

Ash grinned and pointed to his head.

He sensed Tracey's embarrassment. He also sensed the slight fear Max had for his real father. Max seemed genuinely afraid that his father would use him for battle. It seemed that Ash and Misty would be taking care of him for a while.

"Hey, I just realised. So many people are going to love me like this. We're gonna take the world by storm!" May said.

"Well, Ash?" Misty asked.

Ash looked at Misty and then at Max, who was giving Ash a puppy dog eyes look. Ash realised that Misty probably was the best choice for him. Besides, Max needed someone to care for him.

"All right."

"We're still gonna be buds right Ash?" Jean-Luc asked.

"Hey, I'd never abandon my best friend," Ash responded.

_Just think, I can understand my Pokemon now. I'll be an even better trainer._ It was Richie's thoughts.

Looking the group over, Ash realised that their futures were about to become even more interesting then they had ever imagined.

- - -

A week later.

Richie had decided to continue being a trainer. He was taking a vacation with Sparky for them to get used to their new forms.

Tracey was on his way back to Pallet Town to not only show Oak his new form but to also convince the professor.

Ash and Misty were planning their wedding. Max was staying with them as their son for the time being. The duo knew they were a little young but they had to admit they did love each other. Neither Ash nor Misty could imagine being with anyone else.

Ash was growing used to being able to hear others thoughts and Misty was spending a lot of time in swimming pools exploring the new abilities her new form afforded her. Max was enjoying being a cute little Eevee kid. He did enjoy one benefit of his new form, he didn't need glasses anymore.

Brock was growing used to being a she and a Ninetales person. Brock enjoyed Rebecca's company. While Brock knew that she just didn't see girls in the same way again, she was still Brock. The only difference was she now went gaga over Val. Val seemed to be interested in forming a union with Brock and Rebecca. Brock wasn't sure what she thought of that. She did however finally have the relationship she always wanted, even if the roles were reversed.

Professor Pine was fascinated with her form and that of the others. She was already pursuing several papers on the subject and enjoying her newfound prowess and athleticism.

May finally calmed down enough to explain to her parents about why Ash and Misty were taking care of Max. While May and Max's parents weren't completely happy about that, they knew Max was in good hands and would return once his fears abated. Our new Flareon girl, on the other hand, decided to take the time to show off her new form. May just knew she'd be able to win countless competitions.

Jean Luc was exploring his new form. He was seeing what the world was like from the point of view of a human, well, humanoid anyway. He was happy that Ash and Misty were finally getting together. He wasn't sure if he was going to battle again, though. With Ash being part Pokemon, Jean-Luc had a feeling that if the leagues allowed it, his best friend was in for some interesting times.

Ash kept the GS Ball at his side. He knew that in the wrong hands it'd be dangerous. With his new abilities, he could tell if someone wanted to use it for good or evil. While the teen wasn't sure what it would mean for society, he was certain human and Pokemon alike were embarking on a new era of understanding.

As for who else would take the plunge, only time would tell.


	10. Reflections

_**Reflections**_

Disclaimer: You know... the usual.

written by: BFoS

The sun was coming down. The redness was showing how deep in sunset it was; and that was a very dark red. The wind was cold, no doubt about that. Maybe it was because of where this lone Marowak was, but he was not going to turn back. He had gone far from his home; he expected to be home to find that nothing had changed. That his territory was not taken; that his mate was not chased off his lands. Or worse; that she was not _dead_.

The Marowak's name was Thian. He was on a journey to save his mate from an unfortunate fate.

So now, at the top of the mountain peak, the sunset shining upon him, he stood before the cave that had to have an answer of some sort. It just _had_ to.

"Alagan!"

It was all Thian needed to say. Not a moment later, there was a breeze blowing from within the cave. Thian did not move; that would show he was not ready to confront him.

Then, in such a short while, the Aerodactyl burst from his cave, landing right in front of Thian. Again, Thian refused to move. They were just face to face, staring each other off.

"What brings a lower life such as yourself to my cave," Alagan asked sternly.

Thian wasted no time in answering. "It is my mate; she is dying."

"How unfortunate. Now what do you want with me?"

The suddenness of Alagan made Thian cringe. He had known that it would take more than what he had said to convince Alagan to help him, but his answer was too cold. Brushing that off, Thian knew he had to get Alagan to help him.

"I heard of stories where you helped cure illness."

"What kind of illness?"

"This illness…it was inflicted by the command of a trainer."

There was a short pause. Thian took this moment to remember how it had all happened, and after doing so, decided upon telling Alagan the entire story.

"We were on our own accord. We had done nothing to provoke a life form. This trainer sought it right to just attack us…in a final try to save our young, Macaria, my mate, sacrificed herself, getting attacked with the trainer's Nidorino's poisoning spike of death. Now, she is slowly dying. I had remembered the stories of how you had cured many before. I was hoping you could do the same for Macaria."

In what seemed like a smile, Alagan said with a firm voice, "I do not cure diseases of any sort. I cannot help you. I am sorry, but this was a waste of your travels. Good day."

Alagan was ready to wing back into the cave. Thian wouldn't allow this. With a sharp aim, he threw his bone, it flying towards Alagan's head.

Only problem with this was that Alagan also had a really sharp hearing level, and saw this coming. He ducked under, where the bone flew overhead and into his cave.

When he regained his balance, Alagan turned back to Thian, who still did not move. This time though, he had no bone to protect him.

"Why would you do that?" Alagan asked. "Of all things, what made you think you had the right to attack me? I gave you an honest answer; I cannot help."

"Then what of the stories?"

"What _of_ them? I do not cure illness. I do not have any power of that sort. Now leave."

"But the stories they tell me; they are not true?"

"They are, but I do not cure illness."

"Then what powers do you possess?"

"I possess none."

"Then how do you cure the illness?"

"I do not, you fool," Alagan said, his temper rising. "Those stories were referring to how I cured the hearts when they were broken; they were not to be taken by exact, it was to be taken metaphorically. I'll say it again; leave."

"How can you cure hearts when your heart is just cold?" Thian was getting stronger with his words as he spoke them, and with each one, he got closer to Alagan. "My _mate_ is dying. Her heart will die to. With it, mine will."

"Then come back when you are broken. Today, go home."

"No! If you can't help me, then there has to be another solution!"

"Then go find it already! Just leave."

"I can't!"

"Why can't you?"

"Because…I don't know how long she has. Please, at least point me in the right direction…"

Oh sympathy. It was the one thing that Thian would call the lowest form. Now, he needed it. It was the only way to get his mate to live.

"Fine," Alagan said. Thian thanked Alagan within himself, then said it aloud. Alagan smiled, and answered, "I can't help you." That almost ticked Thian off, but then he continued. "I know someone that can. He does not take kindly upon this, but he also does not take kindly on the human kind. Or, he had told me once he hadn't. If he still does not like the human race, then he can help you."

"Who is he?" Thian asked.

"He is a Pokémon that had been created. He cares for the others like him; the ones he created."

"What?"

"As it may sound, that is how it goes. He made these Pokémon as clones, as he was a clone himself. Now, he protects them. He might help you."

"Where can I find him?"

"It is a far journey. I would not think you'd make it."

"I _can_ make it. How far?"

"Seven moons east, depending on how fast you walk."

This hit Thian hard. He realized that maybe by that time, his mate would be dead from the illness. What if by that time, his mate were to die? Who would care for the young? The three younglings they had given birth to?

"I can't make it in time…" Alagan did not move. After a long pause, Thian asked, "Is there any way to shorten the time?"

"I am afraid not," Alagan said, again sternly with a firm voice. He said something else that was going to be a big help, though. "I know what you are thinking; you will come home to find your mate dead, and your young dead or caught by humans. I know of a way you can get a sitter."

"Who?" Thian asked.

"I do not know anyone particular, but I have a way you can have someone to care for your young incase she were to die when you reached this Pokémon. Come with me."

Alagan entered his cave, and Thian followed. They went down for a very long while, and eventually reached a stop. Right on the ground, was Thian's bone. He picked it up and held it firmly.

"Look at the glass wall," Alagan said.

It was too dark; Thian was lucky to even spot his bone. Though, when he tried harder, he found that there was a reflection of himself.

"I see. Why?" Thian was confused as to why Alagan had asked him to do that.

"Think; what is it that you want the most. For your mate's sake, what do you want the most?"

It did not take long for Thian to answer that. "I wish for someone to look over her while I search for the cure."

"Good, that is very good," Alagan complimented. "Now, take the skull and the bone."

"Huh?" Thian was yet again confused.

"From the glass; take the skull and the bone."

Thian didn't know where this was going, so he decided to reach for the glass, dropping his bone for a moment. It was a surprise to find that he was able to reach past the glass, and touch the other him.

"Now take the skull and bone," Alagan coached.

Thian pulled on the skull and took the bone from the other him. He had another pair of Marowak skull and bone in his hand.

"What is this?"

"It is almost another you. Have someone wear the skull and hold the bone, and they will become another you. In order for this person to return to normal, they must complete the task you gave it yourself; take care of your mate while you find the cure. Until you find the cure, whoever you have this transform will have to stay as another you for the rest of his or her life. Give it to someone you love or give it to someone you hate." Then, Alagan whispered under his breath, "most importantly, give it to someone you trust."

"What?"

"Oh, nothing."

Thian held the skull at arms length. He wasn't sure if what Alagan was saying was true, but it had to be. There was hope in Thian's eyes. All he needed was this boost.

"It will work for anyone?" Thian asked.

"Anyone," Alagan confirmed.

Thian was filled with joy. He could now find this clone Pokémon and save his mate!

"Mewtwo," Alagan stated.

"What?"

"The Pokémon you are looking for is named Mewtwo. Ask for him after your travel east. You will know you've found him when you reach a secluded mountain, with no other mountains reaching for it. It is a lone mountain. What will also help is finding a variety of other Pokémon all in one habitat, unharmed by it."

"Thank you Alagan," Thian thanked.

"Now, it is best you be going. You don't know how long your mate has to live."

"And now I am gone." With that, Thian left the cave, going home. First, he had to find the right one to have wear the skull and hold the bone. But who?

--

Night fell. Thian held his bone on his right hand (he always held it there) and held the skull on his left. The other bone was being held at his armpit.

He was just a mile away from his territory and still had no idea who he was going to use those things on. He was afraid to go home. He was afraid of coming home to tell his mate he would have to leave again. He was afraid of telling his younglings this.

He stood at a clearing area, not doing anything at all. Just standing. He would have thought more, but he heard something not far off, and quickly, ran into the trees.

A group of humans entered the field, all chatting of something. What they spoke of, he could not decipher.

--

"Ash, we're lost again, aren't we?" May asked.

Of course, it was completely obvious that Ash was unsure of the direction they should have been going. Still, they were trying to push forward.

They had stopped for awhile for Ash to think of the situation more, looking around. Brock took this opportunity to say what he wanted to say.

"You know Ash, maybe we should camp out for the night. We already have a good spot here."

Ash didn't want to have everything on him at that moment, so he agreed with Brock. "Alright, I'm tired anyways. We weren't lost, it's just that it takes awhile to get there."

"But Nurse Joy said it was a twenty minute walk," May said. "We were walking for a couple of hours already."

"Eh, well I guess the landscaping was wrong or something," Ash said, trying to smile his fake smile. Pikachu shook his head to May while he was on Ash's shoulders. Now May was assured that they indeed were lost.

Quickly, the sleeping bags were set, the fire was started, and the four (not counting Pikachu (Ash, May, Max, and Brock)) began to get ready for sleep. That's how it always was with them. The hours passed, the fire died, and everyone was asleep. Carefully, Thian stepped into the clearing.

Thian realized what he was staring at; he was looking upon a group of trainers. It was obvious with the Pokéballs and bags.

He circled the group, careful not to wake them up. He was going for one in particular, one that he was sure would be able to help. Trainers had the tendency to carry Pokémon that were very strong. He had to pick the Pokémon that was strong.

At the moment, that Pikachu sleeping next to the trainer looked strong enough.

Silently (having placed the bones and skull out of sight), Thian came up to the Pikachu. The dirt at his feet crumbled, but they weren't enough to wake the Pikachu. It was at that moment that he snatched the Pikachu, covered it at the mouth, and pulled towards the outer clearing.

The Pikachu was struggling right as soon as he had placed his hand on him. There were shocks flying, but he was unaffected by them. He brought the Pikachu out, where the Skull and Bones were.

Thian tossed the Pikachu to a tree, in which caused the Pokémon to screech.

Ash caught it. He awakened from his slumber, and looked around.

"Huh? Where—where's Pikachu?" he wondered, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He sat up and looked around. It was when he heard the faint 'pika' that he realized his friend was in danger.

Ash stood, not waking everyone, and ran to the screams.

It took awhile, but what he saw was a sight. There was a Marowak trying to force another Marowak skull on top of his Pikachu.

Quickly, Ash ran forward, but tripped, landing right before them.

How unfortunate was it that Pikachu had managed to kick the skull away to his right. Where Ash was. How unfortunate, at the same moment, that Ash had landed on the bone, and was now clenching it in his hands.

The skull landed right on top of Ash's head. It wasn't a perfect fit (it was on him like a hat instead of a mask).

"What's this?" Ash asked. He reached over his head (with bone in his hand) to try and pull off the skull, but found it impossible. There was a gooey brown substance that was falling from the mask, slowly sliding down Ash's face. "Yuck, what is this stuff?"

"Oops…" Thian said simply.

The brown rolled all over Ash's face. Ash grabbed on the substance, but that just made it worse. The Gooey brown got all over his hands and started to spread from there.

He fell on his back while still trying to pull the skull off.

"Pikachu! Help me!"

Pikachu responded quickly and jumped on top of Ash's chest and went towards the skull. Now it was impossible for Ash to talk; the brown gooey liquid pulled his face into the skull, fitting in tightly. It looked weird, considering the skull was slightly smaller than a human skull.

In a burst, another large amount of the brown liquid pushed out to blast all over Ash's body, even landing on Pikachu. Though, the brown goop that landed upon Pikachu slid off to land on anywhere left on Ash. The brown liquid melted the clothes that it touched, and spread on his skin. It became tight, becoming scales, as it continued everywhere else.

Pikachu again tried to pull the goop off, but it was still not working. It slid right out of his paws to go back on Ash. Pikachu gave a glance to Ash in an entirety and was able to see that the goop was squeezing Ash as it continued its journey all around Ash.

With a movement of his hand, Ash brushed Pikachu off and rolled over. He got on his knees, in which at this point, the goop was all over his body. Now, a tail was forming, filling an empty space. Ash felt his spine get longer to make more bone and blood for the tail.

He was no longer wearing clothes; it had all been melted when the goop had spread. Now he looked like an anthropomorphic Marowak.

Thian found this the right time to creep away to where neither Pikachu nor Ash could see him.

The goop squeezed harder, squishing Ash's organs and body together. There was a crack as his bones were being broken, but it didn't hurt Ash.

Finally, Ash was able to see. His eyes were right behind the eyehole of the skull, right inside. He felt his face pull forward a bit, which blocked some of his air. He squirmed for a moment, but in the next instant, air continued to come in. Again, the goop squeezed. It was crushing his lungs. Again, Ash felt that he couldn't breathe. He thought he was going to die at that instant, but couldn't scream.

More bones cracked as his legs were shortened, and shortened, and shortened. His torso was becoming wider, and more bones near his chest were cracking. He felt his spine shortening this time, pulling him to a smaller size.

Ash finally saw his right arm (the one with the Marowak bone (which he noted he would question later why he was still holding the thing)), and found that they were scales. _His_ scales.

He wanted to scream, but he still could not speak.

His fingers began to fuse together, making his hands look more mitten-like, but easier to hold the bone.

Now he fell on his belly. He was squinting; he did not feel pain. He just felt the change, and that was enough to make him believe he was in pain.

He felt his feet being dragged as he was shortening while his upper half was also being dragged, except in reverse, as if to show Ash that he indeed was getting shorter at an alarmingly fast rate.

His shortening seized; now, everything else around his body seemed to be hardening. This happened for a couple of seconds; enough time for Pikachu to come up to him and try to help him up.

Pikachu took notice of Ash's change. However, that was not going to change that fact that he was still going to help his trainer.

Then, it all just stopped.

Ash stopped squinting and looked to his side, where he was still on the floor lying. He could barely see with the skull right at his eyesight. He turned to his side, almost getting on his back, but he felt his tail push into him as he was going to lie on his back. This made him very uncomfortable, so instead, he stayed in the lying position he was in. Instead, he decided he should do the second best thing.

Oh, was that proven to be the wrong thing to do.

He saw his new form, first person point of view. That was not something you'd find comfortable; these sights are the kinds of sights that help lure more people to asylums.

Yeah, the only option was screaming. Only, Ash could not utter any word at all.

He tried screaming again, but nothing was coming out of his voice.

"Ash…you're a Marowak…" Pikachu said, pointing out the obvious. Being a Pokémon, you'd think Ash would be able to understand other Pokémon languages. Nope; he was unfortunately still unable to understand Pikachu, and only heard Pikachu speaking in his normal Pikachu language. Fortunately, out of all the unfortunates to happen, Ash had been with Pikachu for a very long time; he understood what Pikachu was trying to say, even though he did not understand the language quite right. At all.

Ash tried talking again, using his new hands to squeeze and pull at his scaly neck, trying to get something, _anything_ out. Nothing at all.

Ash tried standing on an upright position, but lost his balance and fell back onto the grass.

"Oh my," Thian whispered from the bushes. This was all his fault; he had tried to get the Pikachu to be the sitter, but instead, he had somehow gotten the skull and bone to be held and worn by the human.

This was very unfortunate; first of all, humans did not understand the language of Pokémon. It was understandable to have another Pokémon wear the skull and bone, because then the Pokémon would be able to communicate with his mate. This would be a big plus, but this human was not born a Pokémon, and therefore would not understand their language.

Maybe there was a way Thian could get words across to the human; it was too late to change anything. Maybe he could somehow show signs that the human could understand so he could explain what he had done and what he was trying to do? It was worth a try.

There were many options, but Thian had to act quick before something happened to this human that could possibly get himself in danger, and then humiliate Thian himself with everyone thinking that this human was him.

No, there was no way Thian could take this human as the one to take care of his mate. It was wrong, and there were signs all around him saying that this human wouldn't last one day. As a matter of fact, the human might—

_SMACK! PUNCH! KICK!_

In seconds, Pikachu was right on top of Thian, doing the above mentioned things to him while knocking him to the floor.

"What did you do to him?!"

Thian was now being held by the impressively strong hold of the Pikachu, now with the skull cracked a bit and a very noticeable black eye, broken un-visible teeth (how the heck the Pikachu was so freaking strong was something that would haunt him for the rest of his life).

"That was meant for you, not a human," Thian responded, trying to get his breath back.

There seemed to be a click of some sort within Pikachu's mind. He began to think of exactly what happened to Ash, then how it was to relate to him.

_SMACK! PUNCH! KICK!_

Another beating, with Pikachu asking; "What were you going to do to me?!"

With this act, Thian was pretty sure he could have instead asked the Pikachu to do the act of finding Mewtwo and curing his mate.

"I was going—I was going to ask for a favor," Thian said, trying his best to not make matters worse. "This was an accident; besides, you're the one who pushed the skull to the human!"

_SMACK!_ This time, Thian knew it was coming. He used his bone to stop the smack, smiled a bit at how he deflected the attack, but then failed to do the same to the punch and kick when they connected with his stomach.

"Why not ask someone from your territory?!"

"Because I must take care of my mate and younglings myself; it seems that the captured don't remember a thing of Pokémon caring."

"Then what favor could I _possibly_ have done if you refuse to have help at all?!"

"It was more of an 'ego' thing, if you know what I mean," Thian said silently, with a smile.

Meanwhile, Ash was struggling with his new body. His best friend, his one and only Pikachu, had just ran off and left him alone for a moment. This was enough time for Ash to panic to heck and back.

However, after a few minutes of smacking his head into a tree, trying to take the skull off and assuming it was the skull that gave him the appearance he was currently having, Pikachu and Thian came back.

Ash pointed at the Marowak, but unfortunately was unable to form words. Not even to speak the Marowak language; Ash had no voice to talk with. He was mute.

"Okay, let me see…how must I say this," Thian began thinking, scratching the back of his skull with his bone. He needed a way to say _something_ to Ash; it was the only thing he could do to the unfortunate trainer. "What is this human's name?"

Ash immediately ran right for Thian, bone ready to beat to a pulp, but unlike Pikachu, he was not a trained Pokémon. Thian grabbed the bone in mid-air, and tossed it away from his grip. Pikachu was ready to pounce, but decided to wait until something else happened worthy of another beating.

"His name is Ash," Pikachu told Thian.

"Ah, Ash, I got it now." He turned his attention back to the former human. "Ash. I don't know how to say this to you; and I truly mean it, I absolutely do not have a clue, but I'll start with the 'I am sorry' speech."

So, Thian began the speech. If only he had known the speech was useless, considering Ash still heard Pokémon words the way they were normally spoken when a human would hear a Pokémon talking. Not even the fact of being a Pokémon helped him understand; the words made no sense, and his new Marowak brain was not acting as a translator.

"So, does thou accept my apology?"

A blink is all Thian got. Ash opened his mouth as if to say 'what,' but he still could not speak.

"Why can't he talk?" Pikachu asked. Sparks emitted from his cheeks, but this did not worry Thian. Thian was a ground type, and Pikachu was a thunder type. There was no way Pikachu could possibly hurt—

_THUNDER CLAP!_

Rain poured down hardcore. The thunder streaking across Pikachu's cheeks seemed to get much brighter, and much dangerous.

"I am sorry, but it seems I also do not have an answer for the former human's silence," Thian answered.

"Do you _want_ to get beaten again?"

"No; the answer I have is the honest truth; I have no idea for the former human's silence."

There was a moment in-between when it seemed as if Ash was going to talk, but again, words did not come out. He kept trying while Pikachu did the lawyer thing and argued with Thian.

"Well you have to know how to turn him back to normal; you're the one that did this!"

"Yes, but I—you see—hmm…let's see…" Thian seemed to just drift away in thought, beginning to think about this more. "Well…at first, when I saw the human wear the skull and hold the bone, I believed this was bad because…eh, I thought he wouldn't understand the situation, but this is too far in literality."

"Uh-huh; and how do you plan to turn him back to a human?!"

Thian searched through his mind, trying to find _something_ in there that could possibly help the situation without going back to Alagan. Turns out, he still had nothing.

Now though, Thian began to study more than just how this human was to turn back to normal; for one thing, he knew that the human would return to his normal self if he did one favor. But…was the human ready for such a task?

"Mind if I ask of your trainer a favor?" Thian asked. Pikachu stared strangely, one blink. "I will take this as a yes."

Ash had stopped paying attention a long time ago; he instead tried removing the skull, pulling harder and harder again. Thian just had to stop this for one second in order to give his favor.

And so he did.

--

The convincing did not take long; Ash tried his best to interpret what Thian was saying, but all he heard were the normal Marowak words. Ash could not break down one word.

However, using the special technique known as body language, he was able to interpret enough; just the part about being a sitter. No, actually at first, he did not understand anything of it until he finally understood the part about being able to become human again. On this part, he kept ears wide open (if Marowak even had ears within their skull they keep so tight on).

So, yes, the entire thing had to be repeated many times. Thian just wanted to give up after the seventeenth time (to be taken more literally than you would really think) of explaining. The only thing that kept him explaining were the water pouring down from the sky and the electrical shocks that were eventually to fry him if he did not explain to the point where Ash could recite his exact words and know what they meant.

After a _very_ long time, Ash knew the basics of what he was supposed to do to gain his humanity back. That was good enough for Pikachu to stop his lightning rod from completely destroying Thian.

Pikachu began to explain that the name Ash was to respond to was Thian; even though it was in Pika language with Pikachu. Finding that this was hopeless, Pikachu forced Thian to explain his name. After awhile, Ash was able to completely say the word in Marowak speak. He did not know exactly what it meant, but he was glad that he could manage them.

Then, he was sent off; just like that. Thian went who knows where to find Mewtwo and Ash went to Thian's territory. Pikachu walked with him, trying to speak to Ash, but failing due to Ash not knowing Pikachu speak.

Eventually, the two got to the point they assumed was where Thian's territory began. It was pretty obvious to Pikachu when the many Spearow decided it was right to all of a sudden appear and attack him, screaming something about, oh, say, "Whatcha doin' in Thian's paurt?" and such. It was a little slower for Ash to take this in, as he actually was waiting for the Spearow to attack him, forgetting he was a Thian look-alike.

"Ash! Call them off; please!"

Those words were in Pikachu speak; Ash could not decipher them. Plus, he could not form words, so trying to talk to these Spearow was pointless.

But what about the bone? Oh well, it was worth a short. Ash raised the bone up to the sky, ready to wack the living daylights out of the Spearow in the still raining night.

_THUNDER!_

Unfortunately, Ash was too late to react, and Pikachu did good work of defeated the Spearow. Too bad the raised bone acted as a lightning rod, and the water all over Ash reacted like Ash to food when the lightning struck.

--

"Sorry Ash; I didn't mean to do that," Pikachu apologized. Ash just rubbed his shoulder, but really it was very questionable to him why he hardly felt pain in his lower torso in the location where his—

"But hey, it could've been worse," Pikachu said, interrupting Ash's thoughts. Ash tried to agree, but again, could not form any words at all.

Every now and again, he'd find Pikachu staring at him. It was very uncomfortable, but then he found that it could only be natural; a human becoming a Marowak? No way, gotta see it for mahself. Or, at least, gotta give that one annoying stare until he decides to bat the heck out of me with that freggin' bone.

As much as that fantasy of beating the heck out of just about anything was to Ash, he still restrained himself. He had to act just a little civil.

Finally, after an unknown and extremely long amount of acres crossed of pure Thian's territory, Ash and Pikachu finally reached Thian's home! Alas! Now, Thian's mate could cook Ash all she had to offer and give him everything he ever wished for.

Wait a sec; what was her name again?

Oh, how Ash wished he had asked, now that he had entered the shelter of the dark crevice of a mouth of a cave. Alone.

Pikachu waited outside, leaning against the rocks. After awhile, the waiting started to bore him. He was thinking of walking in, hoping that he would find nothing but Ash in the middle, but then he heard something.

Quickly, he ran off to the side, where the bushes were hiding him. He looked intently into the cave mouth. After awhile, Ash fell backwards onto the ground, seeming to be attacked by something. Pikachu looked closer.

He got just close enough to see exactly what it was that Ash was trying so hard to bat off; it was three Cubone younglings. How adorable!

Now if only Ash wasn't acting like he was in the middle of a horror story trying to get monsters off of him. Pikachu really wanted to go and help, but he was afraid he could start something that would most likely kick him out of Thian's territory; Ash could not say a thing about it, the only reason being that he could not talk.

Why couldn't he talk anyways? What was blocking his vocals from speaking?

Upon this thought, a bone from nowhere whacked Pikachu right at his face, knocking him out immediately.

Uh oh. Ash just found out that it was probably a bad idea to underestimate the power of the bone. Now, he was being pulled by the three Cubone younglings into the cave again. He only heard them speaking their normal language; he did not understand what they were saying.

Now, going deeper into the cave, Ash gave in and let them take him to wherever it was they wanted to take him.

He wanted to ask where they were going, but alas, he could not say a word at all.

The tunnels twirled all around the place, making Ash very dizzy as he was led deeper. He was surprised he could see inside the cave. He did not question it though; both for the reasons that he was afraid to and that he could not speak.

Eventually, the Cubone younglings brought him down to where Ash found a lady Marowak. Oh, the mate.

Ash wasn't sure how he was supposed react. Maybe he was supposed to beg at her feat for forgiveness in not accomplishing whatever it was Thian had been sent to accomplish. Maybe he was supposed to say something (unfortunate as he was) to please her. Whatever it was, he was the one that had to do something. If he did not, then this mate would think something wrong. Ash knew as much that this Marowak was dying. He had to help her; that was a part of the deal.

He did what he found right; he kneeled, and bowed. What he was expected would have been somewhere along the lines of the Marowak feeling sorry for him of some sort. He was not expecting a "Misty" number and being kicked out of the cave by miss Marowak herself.

Ash landed on the ground hard, and the female Marowak entered the cave looking angry as ever. Or, angry as a Marowak could look, at least.

After the coast was clear (or so sir Pikachu thought), Pikachu jumped out of the bushes and rushed to Ash's side, rubbing his own head from the bone toss. "How'd it go?" he asked.

Ash waved him off to sit up, then showed him the A-OK symbol (as hard as it was to do so in his body).

--

The morning had come and gone, and now the sun began to beat hard on the forest creatures. Many scrambled to the shade. However, since the morning, Pikachu was trying to decipher exactly what Ash was trying to charade him. And thus went all morning and afternoon, even parts of noon. The day was nearing night.

And of course, it had to happen. Ash's stomach made its usual yet strangely unusual growl, indicating it was time to eat for him. At this moment, Pikachu shoved an apple right at his skull, in which it splattered everywhere.

"Where is your mouth?" Pikachu asked.

Ash showed, his tongue sticking out and licking the remains of the splattered apple.

"I thought that was part of your skull…"

Another tummy growl, and Ash started worrying. Pikachu could see it in his eyes, as they darted from tree to tree looking for anything. He even indicated on maybe going back to a city and eating at a restaurant. Only problem there was that Pikachu was not sure if Ash could be captured, and if he was, then he'd fail his task, and not be able to be a human again.

Ash had to unfortunately stick with apples.

He didn't like it, but it was better than not having anything. He ate the apples greedily as they were tossed from the trees by his companion. Soon, he had the usual belly that would form after breakfast, lunch, or dinner. He burped, loud and clear, Spearow flying out of the trees along with any other scared to death Pokémon.

"Are you done yet?" Pikachu asked.

Ash raised his bone as if to say "one second" and burped even louder. A tree made the decision that said Ash was acting rude, and dropped a branch, clonking right on top of Ash's head.

From that moment until dusk, Pikachu again tried deciphering Ash's charade. By then, Pikachu understood most of it; the only problem he was having was the fact that Ash just wasn't good at charades.

What took an entire day took only a sentence to summarize by Pikachu.

"Okay, let me get this straight. You went in with the Cubone babies, met the mate, bowed, and were kicked out?" Ash nodded. "Why did you do that?"

Ash tried to explain that it was the right thing to do, but Pikachu cut into his charade.

"Ash, I don't know if you know, which you probably don't, but not many Pokémon find that…good. Actually, it's sometimes taken offensively."

There was a moment of silence. After ten seconds past, Ash made a sign as if exasperated by the events that were going on already. It was as if he was just telling Pikachu at the moment that he was giving up already. It was further confirmed when he began to walk away towards where he had tried falling asleep the day before.

"Wait, where are you going?!" Pikachu shouted, catching up.

Ash tried to tell him, but again, no words would escape him. Instead, he kept silent. It wasn't like he had anything else to do at the moment, as he walked towards the campsite he, Brock, May and Max had made.

"What about becoming human? Don't you want to be human again?"

Ash tried to say that even if he was not there, as long as Thian finished his job, he would avert back to being a human. He had to stop to get it clear for Pikachu, which it was still a bit fuzzy.

"I—but that's not how he explained it!" Pikachu said, trying to make Ash stop again. He got in his way, not moving even when he pressed onwards. "Thian said that in order to change back, _you_ had to do _his_ job! Waiting for him to return is _not_ his job!"

Ash tried to push forward, and ended up smacking Pikachu with his bone. Pikachu grabbed the bone, tired of this, and smacked Ash in the head with a hard blow. Now it was Pikachu's turn to be surprised by the sheer strength of the bone, as Ash was knocked out with one hit.

--

It was the next morning. Ash slowly awakened from the long sleep he was given by his own weapon. Pikachu stood right above him. Literally. He was sitting on Ash's Marowak stomach; Pikachu was not as light as he was when Ash was a human.

Ash brushed him off with his hands and moved his mouth as if to say, "Get off!" or something similar. He sat up, looking around. He found that Pikachu had taken him back to the cave.

"Sorry Ash; I just can't let you go your life as a Marowak," Pikachu said honestly.

Ash stared for a moment. He wanted to beat him to a pulp; his human mind, not Marowak mind. The fact that he was still too sleepy to do so stopped him. Instead, he sighed, and decided to charade a question to Pikachu.

It took awhile (ten minutes to be exact), then Pikachu understood. What Ash was trying to say was; "What exactly am I supposed to do anyways?"

"Well, I took the liberty of looking for food while you were asleep," Pikachu answered, motioning to his side. Near both of them was a large sack. Pikachu ran to the sack and opened it, revealing meat of all kinds cooked to perfection. "Took it from a group of trainers that was passing by."

Immediately, Ash react with just one thought; _FOOD!_

Ash would have eaten it all, had Pikachu not punched him when he got near, dropping Ash to the floor.

Now Ash was in pain, as he held onto his skull from the blow. Meanwhile, Pikachu was in the same pain, shaking his hands trying to ease the pain from punching a skull.

After awhile, Ash sat up and looked at Pikachu questioningly. Pikachu finally answered with, "The food is not for you; you are pretending to be a father, remember? The father is bringing food home for the family. Hopefully, this will get you to be able to get back into the family." _And hopefully you won't screw up again_, Pikachu added in thought.

Ash made a movement as if to ask what he was going to eat. Again, it wasn't easy to decipher it, but Pikachu managed.

"Here," Pikachu said, tossing the same fruit he had given Ash the day before; "another apple."

As much as Ash was not satisfied with it, he had no other options. He ate the apple in a rush, while at the same time trying to savor the flavor as if he had not eaten food in days.

After he was done, Pikachu tossed him the large sack, which knocked the breath out of him.

"Oh, and here's your bone," Pikachu said, putting it on top of the sack. "Hmm…knowing you…" Pikachu moved the bone a little, then began to tie over the thing with the sack. Now, the bone acted as a knot for the entire thing. "Okay, go get accepted," Pikachu said, sending Ash off into the cave.

The cave was pretty much the same thing; nothing had changed at all. The only difference was the fact that there were no Cubone younglings to be pulling at him. As much as he'd like to see the cute faces of the bunch again, he did not want to drop the food; now, he didn't know what counted as a compliment and what counted as a sin.

The twirling looks of the cave were making Ash dizzy as he continued. He decided that maybe getting to the location of the mate the fastest way was a better idea. Oh, was he wrong about that.

Finally, he reached the location of where the mate was located. Now that he could see her clearly, she looked very tired. As if she was…dying. Her younglings were all around her, and once they saw him, started running and jumping all over him.

Ash had to get to Thian's mate first; he had to show her that he was worthy to be accepted in the cave. She already laid her eyes upon him, and her gaze seemed to give him another chance. Ash smiled at his luck, and broke away from the younglings with the sack still being held.

He placed it right in front of him, smiling at the fact that he got there fast. Quickly, he opened the sack. Uh oh, the dizziness of the running and twirling of the cave was just a bit too much.

_BARF!_

Ash just threw the contents of all the apples from the day before plus that morning's apple right into the apple, all in a sloppy blunder. The younglings stopped their cheering at their apparent father. Eh, the rest wasn't too pretty.

The point; it ended with strike two, and Ash thrown out the same way he was the time before.

"How'd it go?" Pikachu asked. Really, he doubted he needed to ask that question. Still, Ash answered with a thumb's up.

Pikachu helped him up, pulling him off the ground and brushing away some of the dirt that accumulated.

"You know," Pikachu started, "for someone who doesn't quite understand what I'm saying, you're doing pretty good in interpreting."

Ash only waved him off, and walked away. He went straight for a tree, where he sat. He had the look of someone in deep thought. Pikachu sat next to him, feeling bad.

"Alright, so maybe the food didn't win them over," Pikachu said; "so what? There are many other things we could try. Let's see…hmm…"

And an hour went by.

"Okay, so maybe there aren't many other options, but come on; don't give up."

Ash was looking straight into the dirt below him. He dug his feet into it, easily able to do so, then pulled them up. He did that for quite awhile.

"Ash, look at me." At this point, Pikachu pulled Ash to face him. Ash didn't resist. "Ash, we're going to try again. We might not have much to think of doing, but with your help, I'm sure something will come up."

Ash showed motion with his hands, as if to zip his mouth shut.

"So what if you can't talk? I need some help here; I'm sure this next try is going to work out all perfectly."

There was really nothing Ash could do that could get Pikachu to stop helping; Ash had given up a long time ago. He was just waiting for Pikachu to do the same. But…something drove Pikachu on. Something was just pushing him forward.

This determination reminded Ash of the first day he journeyed with Pikachu. He remembered it so clearly; and he remembered never giving up. He would not let Pikachu stop, even after so many electrical shocks from the rodent. He would push onward, and when Pikachu was in danger, he went to the lengths of even stealing a bike to save him. Imagine if the option was the president's car? Most likely, Ash would steal that car to save Pikachu. It was determination to let Pikachu live that drove him on.

This is what was driving Pikachu on. Now if only Ash would agree on _going_ on.

Ash refused to believe that he could somehow get back in there and play the father. It was impossible; he knew way deep inside that he was not a Pokémon. He was a human, and a human could not care for a Pokémon like a mate; only as a companion of sort.

This really ticked Pikachu off when Ash tried to explain it.

"Okay," Pikachu said. He had a face that showed indifference, as he stood and pulled on Ash by the skull. Ash tried resisting, but he unfortunately trained Pikachu very good, and Pikachu's grasp was harder. "I'm going to show you that you can do this; now come on."

And they entered the cave.

--

Thirty seconds past by and Ash was already on the floor, throwing up. Pikachu had to look away or else _he_ would throw up on top of Ash.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad!" Pikachu argued with Ash, knowing he was probably thinking of telling him that he couldn't go on. Pikachu pointed towards the light of the mouth of the cave. "We've only gone ten yards in and already you're on the floor?!"

--

Time passed, and soon, the boys were deep down into the cave. Ash tried explaining that it was the remaining throw-up from when he threw-up in the sack, but then Pikachu had made the sudden statement of why he had thrown-up in the bag. It was all unwanted things, and Ash soon found it better to just try not to charade with Pikachu. Besides, it was getting very dark in there and soon it would be hard to see.

Still, Pikachu and Ash were able to navigate easily through the tunnels. Now though, Pikachu was waiting for Ash to tell him where exactly they were supposed to go. He had never been in the cave, so he had to rely on what Ash knew already from being kicked out the two times he was.

But then there were the movements; so sudden and sharp. Ash listened, and could hear it. So could Pikachu. Pikachu showed a sign with his fingers to show to be quiet. Ash showed a sign with his shoulders as if to say "you got to be kidding me."

They passed a couple of sharp corners, and finally made it to where resided the Cubone younglings. Pikachu stayed upon the wall, pressing deeper to it so he could stay out of sight from the younglings and the mate; if she were there.

"Okay, now go in there; I'll back you up if something happens."

Ash showed a sign of "what?" but could not do anything about it; Pikachu just pushed him right into the rooms.

Ash was now the younglings; the younglings were not looking at him though, even when he entered the sight. Their mother, Thian's mate, was nowhere in sight.

He rubbed the back of his head with his bone, wondering where she was. This caused the younglings to turn, and quickly run to him.

Ash expected to be attacked by them again in a round of cheers, but the look upon them was not of cheers; it was of fear. Fear from what? That was the question.

It was at that question that Ash reacted in the fastest motion he had ever reacted to. A bone was flying right towards him. He somehow _caught_ it in his free hand.

He looked on it. There were signs of battle. He turned to where it had come from, wishing and at the same time dreading that Thian's mate would be standing there.

Beyond where the bone was thrown from was another room, very dark. It seemed Ash was going to have to go through it if he wanted to see what was on the other side. This did not bother him; it was the Marowak cries coming from there.

He gulped; this was most likely not going to be pretty. But he had to do it.

He crossed, moving past the darkness of the tunnel, and into the slightly larger room. He saw Thian's mate; he also saw her fighting with a Sandslash.

Hmm…now what was it that Thian had told Ash to do? Oh, that's right; he had told him to protect his mate from danger and keep her alive, along with his younglings.

He looked at his bone.

_So what am I supposed to do with this? _he pondered, _just throw it?_

Well, it was worth a try. He tossed his bone, and it hit right at the back of the Sandslash's quills. This really and truly upset the poor thing; it just had to turn around to see his attacker, being Ash.

Ash smiled and waved.

Sandslash tackled and gave no mercy.

Now what? Ash only had his—whoops, he meant to think _Thian's_—mate's bone. Was it right to smack an attacker with a weapon that does not belong to you? Ah, another question for Ash to try answering in the pit of major losing.

Ash decided that the best thing to probably do was to give Thian's mate the weapon and have an experienced attacker try attacking this large chunk of fat lard put in front of him. Then the slashes came, and Ash realized that these were _muscles_.

He tossed the bone in the air; it flew, twirling as if in slow-mo, flying towards Thian's mate. She jumped, reached. She got a hold of it. And she looked as if she was in…pain.

Fat chance that _that_ would stop her.

--

Ash and Thian's mate held the Sandslash as if he were some kind of criminal, leading him towards the outside world. He turned back to bite sometimes, but in those cases, Ash and Thian's mate would clonk him on the head with their bones. Ash even head-butted; something he just wanted to do now that he had a rock-skull head. Pikachu followed in the shadows.

Once outside, outside just didn't seem enough. Thian's mate spoke to Ash, but he could not understand her. Instead, she just forced him in the direction she wanted to go. So, Ash followed right by her.

They ended up going up the steep hill the place was on. At the top, on the other side of the hill, was a cliff. Uh oh, were they just about to toss this Sandslash over the cliff edge? Ash was many things; apparently, now even a Pokémon. He was not a murderer.

He looked around, looking for Pikachu. It was either Pikachu was good at keeping hidden, or he just refused to follow. Either way, they were now on the edge. The Sandslash said a couple of comments in a rude manner that Ash could not decipher, and Thian's mate replied with even ruder sounding remarks.

Ash tried to say something, but he still could not talk. He did not want to be part of throwing mean mister Sandslash overboard. How was he to—?

_THUNDER!_

From seemingly nowhere yet again, rain poured down all hardcore. This slightly dazed Thian's mate. Then, Pikachu from the shadows had an idea.

In the confusion, Pikachu created a thunderbolt that went directly to the sky and crossed, blinding all that saw it. Meaning that it blinding Thian's mate, Ash, and the Sandslash.

In a flash, Pikachu sprinted towards them. When he passed Ash, he whispered to him, "Pretend he was thrown!" and pulled the Sandslash out of danger. Pikachu ended up taking the Sandslash out of sight, and farther. Not stopping.

When Thian's mate got out of the daze, she looked at Ash. She said something in her language. This time though, Ash could decipher it. It was mainly because it was questioningly asked and she was pointing to where the Sandslash was standing.

Since Ash couldn't speak, all he did was point down the ledge. Thian's mate didn't look. Instead, she jumped on Ash. She then did what Ash didn't believe Pokémon, or at least the Pokémon he had become, could do. She began kissing him. That kiss became a make-out right there on the top of the steep hill. And that kiss led to—

--

In the cave, nothing happened. Thian's mate just seemed to be praising Ash like a god. Ash took this in very good, though when she turned her back on him, he kept spitting and wishing he could mutter words like "OhmygodIjustkissedaMarowak."

The Cubone younglings just kept coming back to Ash. He was beginning to like the bunch. They would just come right in front of him, stare, then cheer in their language something that Ash could not understand.

This was all good and nice. Now Ash began wondering where the heck Pikachu ran off to.

--

Pikachu pulled the Sandslash out of danger in the nick of time. The Sandslash was dazed and confused for a long moment; long enough for Pikachu to lead him out of danger. Then, after awhile, he slashed at Pikachu, unappreciatively.

Pikachu let go and crashed right into a tree from running so fast.

He turned around, holding his side as if in pain. "Ouch?!" it was more of questioning why the heck the Sandslash did what he did.

"Why did you do that; I almost had meat for _me_!"

This took a moment to register to Pikachu, then he remembered the sack he had given Ash. The Sandslash must have smelled the meat and followed Ash down, in hopes of taking it. Then Pikachu remembered what Ash tried to charade, and what he thought Ash was trying to say. If Ash was truly trying to say that he had thrown up in that sack, heh, "trust me, you don't want it."

"Of course I want it; why would I break in?"

"Did you know that this was Thian's territory? What are you even doing here?"

"Oh you lie; alright, what are you doing here? Why are you in Thian's grounds, if you are so sure Thian would be angry? Did you see his reaction?! It was ruled over by his mate; he's nothing without her!"

"That may be, but didn't you see what he was about to do to you? I believe he was going to drop you like a rock against other rocks."

The Sandslash was about to answer back, but put on a thinking expression the next instant. A light bulb seemed to flash right over his head, and he answered, "Gee, I guess you're right. How can I repay you?" He said it with that evil smile that the protagonists in most stories seem to never see. In this case, Pikachu didn't see it either.

"You think you can repay me?" Pikachu answered. His voice was sharp; it seemed that he would not break on this. Pikachu had that hard expression that most people that want to make a point across have. It didn't seem he would remove it.

Then in the next instant, he finally acted like a Pikachu, with the smile, cheerful expression and all, while saying, "You can say 'thank-you.'"

--

Back in the cave where mister "I-wanna-be-treated-like-a-king-like-forever" was, a.k.a. Ash, Thian's younglings just didn't want to stop tumbling all over him. This was totally unacceptable, considering what he was once told by a certain professor that Marowak fathers always guarded, and when not, were treated to the best efforts by the mate.

That's when the inner Ash just had to slap Ash. Hard. He like, fell off the freggin' rock-looking chair that was conveniently placed in the cave.

_Ash, what are you doing?!_

It was his inner self speaking there. Well, it was a good thing he couldn't speak; otherwise he'd be uttering something misplaced in the entire thing that would probably get him kicked out by Thian's mate again.

_Ash, you are supposed to be caring for my mate! It looks the other way around from what I'm seeing!_

This took a moment to take in, but once Ash did, he realized it was true; it seemed that Thian's mate was doing most of the taking of caring than Ash was.

_ASH! Think back to me! It is not your mind speaking to you, it is me; THIAN!_

Oh, so that was why Ash found it strange that he was talking to himself. But how was Thian speaking to Ash?

_Ash, you can think to us too; just think what you are to say._

Ash found this voice familiar, yet…he could not put a finger on it. It wasn't Thian's voice that had spoken, it was someone else. Ash tried thinking hard on this, but couldn't grasp a thing in his memory to bring him to who the voice belonged to.

_Ash, I am Mewtwo. We met before; I believe I erased your memory, if I recall._

Ah yes, now he remembered. Or wait, did he? He remembered his memory erased…wait, how the heck do you remember having your memory erased?

_It doesn't matter Ash; the point is that I am here, and I have help. You are free to go!_

Oh, that was good. Wait, but Ash was still a Marowak. He looked at himself, waiting for a change of some sort to happen on him. There was nothing. He began to question why he still wasn't changing. Mewtwo and Thian caught in on his thoughts and answered them.

_I believe my mate has to be cured before you are transformed back to human; sorry for getting your hopes up Ash. You will just have to wait a little longer until Mewtwo and I get back to my land._

That sounded pretty reasonable to Ash. He could wait it out a little longer. He still had one more question though; how the heck did Thian know where to go?

_Well, let's just say I took a short cut._

Thian began to remember what had happened; it was just two days before when…

--

"Alright, well then, I'll leave you two, and I am off to see the savior of my mate," Thian concluded to Pikachu and Ash. He gave one respectful, yet questionable bow. (hey, wasn't that considered an insult? Uh oh, thinking maybe he just told Pikachu and Ash off.)

Well, after the farewells, Thian continued with his long and perilous journey. Who knew what he would face as he battled forces unknown to himself; he could end up dead by the end of the journey! It was just one of those journeys where the hero has a time limit to save someone's life. Thian planned to have said life saved. All he had to do was make it to the healer, Mewtwo, and back alive. That would be a piece of cake.

So he didn't expect to have a train out of seemingly nowhere to come and crash into him and high speeds. He didn't expect to go fly. He didn't expect to be tossed right into Mewtwo's cave either.

Lastly, he didn't expect to have some sort of memory loss when he landed.

--

_You could say I kind of ran._

That would be amazing to watch. Ash couldn't believe it; running? Wow, this Thian here was pretty amazing. He then had to wonder again how fast it was he was running.

_Well…_

--

After the farewells, Thian continued with his long and perilous journey. Who knew what he would face as he battled forces unknown to himself; he could end up dead by the end of the journey! It was just one of those journeys where the hero has a time limit to save someone's life. Thian planned to have said life saved. All he had to do was make it to the healer, Mewtwo, and back alive. That would be a piece of cake.

So he didn't expect to have a train out of seemingly nowhere to come and crash into him and high speeds. This time though, when he went flying, he calculated, forming numbers, thinking, even counting in his mind.

--

_Oh, about 50 miles per hour._

Ash had to be amazed again; that was a pretty fast amount of running to be taking.

_Yeah, well that is kind of slower than you think._

Thian had thought that over to Ash at such a slow thought, and very low at that, that Ash didn't catch it quite the first time around. Thian was not about to repeat himself again though.

Ash decided to question over how long it would take to get over to Thian's territory.

_About a day maybe._

The voice was of Mewtwo. Ash looked around him, at the little Cubone younglings and at Thian's mate. He could get used to that for just one day. It was only one day anyways.

_Do not get comfy Ash; you still have a job to do. If you don't complete it, then you will just have cursed yourself to stay a Marowak forever. I think._

Ash didn't care much; as long as Thian's territory belonged to him, he was okay with that.

_Well, do you know how our kind get territory like mine?_

Ash didn't care.

_We fight; bloodshed to the death. _

Well, that was a surprise for Ash. Now he realized why Thian's mate went to the extreme as to want to throw the Sandslash to his death. That was actually…pretty scary, now that Ash was thinking about it. Now he could admit that Thian was right; maybe staying a Marowak wasn't going to be such a smooth move.

_There we go; do not move, Ash. Mewtwo and I will be there soon, then you can go home with your trainer friends and such._

--

"Oh gee, this is all very nice information. Anything else I can know?"

To be honest, the Sandslash was bored. The night was moving along, and Pikachu was showing no sign of stopping his talking. Normally, Pikachu were known to be pretty communicative with each other. Sandslash didn't doubt this as he used to anymore.

He yawned again; Pikachu yet again didn't catch the ninety-ninth yawn.

"But you don't know the best of it; you see, after my trainer literally took the attack for me—,"

Pikachu didn't get to finish; Brock stepped into the area.

"Oh, I found Pikachu guys!"

Pikachu turned back to the Sandslash. "And this right here is the guy I was talking about."

"Who, goo goo brain, or idiot?"

"Well, kind of both, but more of the first one."

May and Max entered the area, in which Max picked up Pikachu and hugged him. "Oh I knew we'd find you! But…where's Ash?"

That is really all they were looking for; Ash. May was holding Ash's cap, which was the only remaining part of Ash they had found. The rest was gone, so they assumed he was still lost somewhere in those woods. Now they had Pikachu to help track him down.

"Well, I think I should be going now," Sandslash said. Sticking around until trainers showed up was not part of his evil plan to take over Thian's territory.

"Hello, what's this?"

It was Brock who had spoken those words; he picked Sandslash up, who struggled in his grip. Brock stared into the Sandslash's eyes, trying to see something in them.

"Something tells me this fella will be a good addition to the team; he already seems to have made friends with Pikachu!"

Okay, now Sandslash was beginning to know what Pikachu was talking about this guy. He was just about ready to give him a slash right across his face until the unknown trainer to him pulled out something delicious smelling from his pocket. That smell. It was strong enough to make him go weak.

"Do you like this?" Brock showed the food in front of Sandslash. Sandslash nodded, slowly reaching for it. Then unexpectedly, Brock shoved it right at Sandslash's mouth, almost choking the poor thing.

"I forgot to mention that he makes some of the greatest things you've ever tasted," Pikachu said.

"Oh, so you can say everything but _that_ part?" Sandslash muttered to himself where only he could hear himself.

"Come on Brock, we got to find Ash," May cut in. She turned to Pikachu, who was now on top of Max's head. "Do you know where Ash is, Pikachu?"

As much as Pikachu wanted to tell her where he went, he didn't believe it would be wise to send a couple of trainer to a Marowak's cave. Heck, the mate that was supposable dying almost killed a Sandslash. Pikachu did not want to imagine what that mate would do to May, Brock, or Max. He just hoped Ash was doing alright.

However, he had to point to a direction. So, he pointed in the opposite direction.

"Oh, well let's get going!" Max cried out.

The group cheered, and all, along with Sandslash reluctantly being pulled into this, moved towards Pikachu's pointed location. Of course, Pikachu had to follow. He just hoped Ash would do alright, wherever or whatever he was doing at the moment.

--

Alagan had just had it. The Zubats were taunting him every chance they had for giving into the lazy-by-their-eyes Thian. This was all just pretty much pissing him off. It only took one giant roar, and the Zubats had flown away. But no, that was not enough for Alagan. He chased them.

He attacked in the cave, trying to destroy every last Zubat there. He chased them right outside the darker side of the mountain the cave resided on. They flew into the much darker area, staying away from the light. No, Alagan wasn't finished. He flew out of his cave in an instance, roared and chased the Zubat off. He wasn't going to stop until every last one of them would pay for the taunting. Weird, I don't remember Zubats learning Taunt…

Though, maybe it wasn't so wise to leave when the bumbling Team Rocket trio was just around the corner.

Jessie and James stayed outside, doing their usual speeches that never went anywhere. In reality, they were pretty much screwed; lost was a better word for it.

Meowth went on into the cave. He found it very intriguing, and planned on leading the other two down there to take a look. If they could not find any valuable Pokémon down there, then at least they could claim the land for Team Rocket.

It was down there where Meowth found the glass reflection of himself.

"Well hey there gorgeous," Meowth said playfully to himself. He began to pose in front of the glass, barely able to see himself. He tripped, of course, and ended up touching the glass. He ended up touching the little gold coin-ish glass on his reflection's forehead. He didn't pay much attention to it.

It fell to the floor, and Meowth just sort of stared at it for a long moment. After that, he picked it up, then went on his way out of the cave. Of course, he just had to trip again and drop the item he had created somewhere inside the cave. He didn't plan on getting it though; instead, he left. He and Team Rocket went ahead and left the place, finding it uninteresting. They were leaving to the left, just as May, Max, Brock, Pikachu, and Sandslash entered the picture to the right.

Funny thing; they decided to enter the cave. At night. It was a good place to get some sleep, don't you think?

--

The night seemed to be moving extremely slowly. At first, it was nice to stick around in the caves; Ash really liked the way he was being appreciated. Then, Thian's mate decided that she should give her hero a relief. This freaked Ash out to no ends. He ended up running out of the cave, falling on the dirt outside like he had been kicked out.

Ash wanted to just say "no." Unfortunately, he _still_ could not form words. He was beginning to wonder if he would be stuck not being able to say a thing forever. That wasn't a very appealing thought, but then he remembered that in just a couple of hours, Thian and Mewtwo would be right in front of him, and Ash would be a human again! Oh goody!

He tried; he really did try, but it seemed that it was impossible to stay comfortable in the cave. He had to get away from the cave, maybe for just some fresh air if only that. Heck, he was already outside; why not?

He took a walk; it wasn't very far until he parked himself sprawled over some tree branch that had fallen.

It would only take a few hours; then he would be human again. He kept telling himself that. Each time, he would feel much better.

I mean, come on. What could wrong?

--

The group of trainers consisting of May, Max, and Brock made camp inside the cave. It wasn't deep into the cave; just right there where they would get shade from the sun when it decided to fall on them.

By now, they were all sleeping. Well, except for Sandslash. He was pretty much angry about the whole thing.

Stupidly, he thought of how the heck he managed to pull himself into this. It didn't seem to occur to him that he could easily slip away from the group now that they were asleep. As a matter of fact, as soon as he saw Pikachu stand and begin to move to the other side of the cave, making the loudest movement you could possibly ever hear, and not waking either of the trainers, Sandslash found it about right to just leave already.

As he was moving away from the group, Pikachu noticed.

"What are you doing?" Pikachu asked.

"I'm leaving; see ya," he said.

This woke up Pikachu completely; ears perking up and all.

"Well, where are you going?" Pikachu asked, beginning to follow him.

"I'm going home."

"What? Why?"

"Because I want to."

Pikachu stood in front of him, fully having him to a halt right before they exited the cave. He had a confused expression on his face, which just made Sandslash roll his eyes and reply with, "I'm going home; I haven't been captured yet, so I'm leaving. Good bye."

"But don't you want to hear more trainer stories?" Pikachu asked.

"No." He tried to go around Pikachu, but Pikachu jumped in front of him.

"Why?"

Sandslash seemed to be losing his temper. Still, he tried to stay calm (no matter how much of a failure it looked like) and answered again. "Because I don't want to hear trainer stories. I only stayed in hopes of finding out more about Thian. Now get out of my freggin' way."

Hmm…this seems familiar. Maybe just the other way around, but seems familiar.

"But why? I thought you liked the trainer stories…" it was either Pikachu was a good actor, or he was just a big baby. Was that tears in his eyes?

"No, I didn't like them. Now let me go already."

"But you said you did…"

"I only said that so that I can get you to go on about Thian! Geez, you never went near him as I pressed for answers. I tried leading you there many times, but no, you still wanted to talk about your trainer!" Sandslash then held Pikachu hard, staring straight into his eyes. "I was using you; how could you not see that? Now get out of my way!"

_Used…?_

Hmm…you know, whenever Pikachu is angered, or fooled in some way, don't you find it weird that he does nothing about it? You'd think coming from a Pokémon that at first didn't want his trainer and would shock him every now and again that they'd be angered easily, right?

Sometimes it worked out well. Sometimes it didn't. Call it whatever you want, but maybe the tackle shouldn't have been done.

Pikachu tackled Sandslash with a headbutt, and the two were in battle. Though, Sandslash found that in a freak turn of events, he was somehow overpowered by the rodent.

They fought and fought, going back into the cave, even to the center of the campsite that had been set up. Punch after punch, claw against fur and paw fist against hard skin. They even tripped right over Max, and continued to fight. And then they were going deeper into the cave, as Pikachu and Sandslash rolled over each other trying to fight. It literally looked like in those cartoons where a bunch of characters just get in a brawl and there's like, smoke all over as fists appear on the outside and such…yeah, the good'ol days.

When they had tripped over Max though, he woke up a bit. He was still seeing blurry vision, not having gotten much sleep. He yawned, stretching, and standing up.

Max looked around the room not as fast as he would have if he had been fully awake. Everything was blurry to him. Maybe that was because his glasses weren't on.

He placed them where they should have been, and his vision improved dramatically. He looked around again.

"Pikachu?"

That was weird. Where had the little rodent gone off to? Where was the Sandslash?

So then he thought; you know, maybe a little investigation wouldn't hurt. And he started his walk, deeper into the cave, unafraid of anything at all.

Meanwhile, Pikachu and Sandslash were still having an all out brawl. They were crashing into just about everything; from falling to the ground and fighting to smashing against the walls and ceiling, they were not showing any sign of stopping.

Even when the defenseless Oddish (which was pretty randomly standing there inside the cave) got in the way, they didn't care; they walked right over the Oddish, getting the poor thing into the fight too.

As stated two paragraphs above, they were not showing any signs of stopping. They were still going at it; right until the slightly not innocent Sneasel appeared in front of them, which was still an act random-o-city.

One slash and punch in the wrong direction is what happened; the next few minutes had Pikachu and Sandslash fighting to stay alive as the Sneasel showed that she was even more powerful than Pikachu. Which was a shock; I mean, come on. When has there ever been a Pokémon to a large extent of extremely more powerful than Pikachu?

The Sneasel kept clawing and clawing, bringing the boys deeper down, eventually knocking them both down to the area where the glass mirror objects were. They all stumbled in there, still fighting. It wasn't until the Sneasel somehow chipped one of Sandslash's back quills off that time seemed to freeze.

Sandslash just had to take one look; that was all he needed before he exploded.

There was his brown sharp quill he had often used to defeat opponents by landing on them and inflicting much pain. Every single one of his quills were his pride; that Sneasel destroyed a small speck of it, and that was enough to almost obliterate Sandslash's entire pride.

He yelled at the top of his lungs, forcing Pikachu and Sneasel to cover their ears. Heck, even Max, who was way more in the upper area of the cave had to cover his ears. It was enough to wake May and Brock from their sleep too.

"HOW DARE YOU!" Sandslash took no time in this; he immediately began to slash at Sneasel, forcing her to try to defend herself. Unfortunately, that was proving useless.

Pikachu felt he should interfere, but then decided against it. He decided that it would be better to see how this turned out.

Meanwhile, on the top, near the entrance, Brock and May were getting ready to start a new search; a search for Max. Where could he have gone, anyways?

"Max!" May shouted. "Where'd you go?!"

Her voice echoed through the cave, but there was no answer. I don't really see why there wasn't; honestly, I believe Max could have heard her. Maybe he was ignoring her or something.

"Come on May," Brock said, in his reasoning voice. "Let's go look. You take left; I'll go right."

Did it really matter? Both were leading to the same way anyways; not that they would know.

By now, Max had now made it to a separate room where there were glass mirrors. He found himself in one of them, and for some reason, felt it right to touch the mirror. Would you? Well, maybe.

He found it shocking the there was no barrier, and he could reach _into_ the mirror. For a long moment, he just stood there, frozen, unable to utter a single word. He actually even touched his other reflection's face.

He was touching his reflection's face; that just didn't feel right. He pulled his hand back, and quickly ran out of there. He had to tell May and Brock about that freaky mirror; he just had to!

Unfortunately for Max, he tripped, and landed with his head hitting the ground first. It wasn't the pain of the ground that got to him, but it was the pain of something else he had landed on with his forehead.

Slowly, he began to stand again. He scratched his forehead. It was…a coin of some sort. It was shinning in the darkness; that much he could tell. And what was this? Was this goo sliding down his face from the coin?

--

Pikachu still watched the fight progress; he was actually very much entertained. The fight continued. Eventually, Pikachu tore his gaze away from the fight.

He found himself looking at the mirror, and the reflection was still showing the fight. It was still amusing; no matter what way you looked at it.

Then, as soon as the Sneasel was beat to a pulp, Sandslash went back and picked up his quill from the floor, examining it.

Pikachu moved closer to the mirror. Slowly, he rubbed a paw against the glass. He found it strange when his paw went _through_ the glass, but did not alert Sandslash. Instead, he reached inward, and was able to grab the quill in Sandslash's reflection; the one he was holding.

Pikachu held it for a moment right in front of him; then, he just tossed it away. When he looked back at the mirror, he saw the Sneasel right next to him.

Quickly, Pikachu ducked out of the way as the beat up Sneasel tried to jump him. Sneasel just ended up crashing right into the glass, scratching at it. As she did, she didn't realize her claw going through the glass. She didn't realize that she had caught the jewel in her reflection's stomach. The jewel fell to the floor, but she did not react to it. She didn't even see it.

Instead, she just kept her glare at Pikachu. Then out of seemingly nowhere, Sandslash smacked her right behind the head.

"That's what you get for taking my freggin' pride, wuss!"

Sneasel was about to run away, but Sandslash jumped right on top of her. He then began kicking, hitting, slashing, whatever it is you want to call it. And Pikachu watched again; amused.

This happened for quite awhile until the Sneasel found enough strength to get out of the way and run. Sandslash ran after her. Pikachu stayed behind.

He turned back to the mirror. He looked directly at it. There was something about the mirror; something was wrong with it. It wasn't because he just saw that he could remove things from it by just reaching into it, but he felt that there was something _really_ wrong with it.

And so, he stayed looking at it.

--

May had been walking down the cave hall for awhile now. Normally, she'd be too afraid to do this alone. However, when your brother's alone out there, and needs you, you have nothing but the guts to do whatever it takes. Or at least that was the way it was for May.

She looked left and right, hoping to find _something_. There was absolutely nothing.

She was about to give up, when she heard something.

"Max?" she called out. She heard the muffled voice again. It was just about around the corner. Why not take a quick look? Mistake right there.

Right as she turned around the corner, something jumped right at her, forcing her to the ground. She looked straight, and saw something that made her scream almost as loud as Sandslash had.

It was an anthropomorphic Meowth. No wait, it was just Max. Or, at least it _looked_ like Max. It was stripped from any clothing at all, leaving only a human child looking Meowth with Max's face.

"May..! I can't…help!"

May couldn't move a muscle; she was too freaked out by what she was looking at. Max rolled off of her.

May inched her way to the wall, and saw what was happening to her brother with her mouth open in a horror expression. Hmm…I guess I should now explain what his transformation was like through the eyes of May. Oh goody.

What May saw was her brother, coated in what seemed to be fur, and having a tail. He was growing whiskers in his already furry face, and his face was stretching a bit wider as he struggled. Eventually, he could not say a word, and May could only see him fighting against himself on the floor.

Then, he began to shrink. May had to squint for every time she heard a bone cracking. It sounded like it hurt; yet, Max said nothing. He only fought, as if _trying_ to scream.

He tried to turn around to his belly, but failed each time, just landing on his back. He looked like he was having a seizure of some sort. And he was still getting ever so smaller. The bones cracked and cracked; inside Max, bones were disappearing into thin air.

May decided that now was about the right time to scream again. Sandslash's scream still kicked her scream out of the arena though.

The last of Max's transformation were being made. His eyes were fitting to that of a Meowth. His bones were just reconnecting to make the bones of a Meowth. Then it was complete.

After a few seconds, Max slowly stood, looking as if he was about to hurl or something. He looked at his Meowth claws, and then decided to throw up anyways. And he did.

"What happened to me?" he said aloud.

This made a click in both, May and Max. Where had they heard such an annoying and completely sound-alike voice before? Oh, that's right. Meowth of Team Rocket.

Max was surprised at this; I mean, would _you_ be surprised if you sounded just like someone—or to put it right, some_thing_ of some other species you know? Wait, no, it was the first one. Never mind; forget this sentence right here. Anyways…

"Max…you sound like Meowth…"

Oh, the obviousness.

"B—but I don't understand! I was just—I was just me a moment ago—what happened?!" Max had to wince at each time he heard his voice being spoken as Meowth's. "How did this happen to me?!"

"I—I don't know…" she answered. It was just then that she all of a sudden remembered Brock. He didn't know about this; heck, May didn't even know what triggered Max's transformation. Whatever it was, she was pretty sure it had something to do with the cave that they were in. May decided that warning Brock and getting the heck out of there was probably the best plan ever. "We got to find Brock!"

And so, she ran. Max tried to run, but it felt pretty weird as he tried running like Meowth did. Within a few seconds, he fell to the floor. Then, he found it easier to go on all fours after May. And he did just that.

--

Brock continued down the cave. He looked for Max left and right; even for Pikachu. The point was, he needed to find someone now. He pretty much thought that by now, May would have found Max. And if she hadn't, then he would be back at the entrance waiting for them. He didn't believe Max would be way down into the cave anyways.

Still, he continued on. If he had been paying just a bit more attention, then maybe he would have heard May's footsteps just down the hall. Maybe he would have heard a Meowth's footsteps too.

But no, he wasn't paying attention to anything anymore. Now, he was just walking. He passed a part of the cave secluded to a central hall, and May came in front the other side, looking around, then running towards the way Brock had come from.

--

Pikachu shook his head, trying the get his reflection off his mind. He turned away from the mirror and was just about ready to leave. He sprinted, going past the quill on the floor, and going past the center jewel of the Sneasel that the reflection had produced.

Right as he was about to go into the next part of the cave, May appeared. She almost stepped on Pikachu. Quickly, she jumped to the side, crashing right into the glass mirror. She didn't notice as her hand slipped on her reflections bandanna, pulling out of the mirror letting it fall to the floor next to her.

May had landed completely flat on the ground; it pretty much hurt her. Slowly, she turned around and sat up. She looked at Pikachu.

"Pikachu! Well, at least we found you." she smiled. Pikachu just looked towards her breast. "Um, Pikachu that looks kind of disturbing." Then Pikachu pointed, and May looked.

Right there, on the center of where her heart should be, was the center area where the Sneasel's Jewel had been. Then, a very dark, neon colored goo began to ooze right out of that area, sliding down her stomach.

"Ew! What is this stuff?" she wondered.

"May! That's the stuff that turned me into a Meowth!"

This was surprise to Pikachu; to find Team Rocket's Meowth right next to May. He didn't really pay attention to what he had said; it was just the voice Pikachu paid attention to.

However, May began to panic after what Max had just said. "G—get it off of me! Please Max—do something!"

At a much faster motion, the goo spread all around her belly. Steam was coming up from the clothes melting as the goo rolled over it. Max tried clawing at the goo, only managing to break it open a little just to have it reassemble right in front of him, going further around May.

It was just going around her waist, when she realized…

As quickly as she could, she unbuckled her Pokébelt and tossed the only Pokéball in it away, it hitting the floor just a few feet away. Then, she continued trying to get the thing off. The only thing is, it would not give up; it kept on moving around her.

"Help me Max! I don't want to be a Pokémon!"

In just a pop, a large amount of goo had flung towards the top, and splattered all over the rest of May's upper body and face. She tried to scream, but the goo quickly sealed her mouth shut as it wrapped around the rest of her body. All that Max could hear were her muffled screams, and see the tears quickly forming as the goo slowly covered her eyesight, only to make a hole and have her be able to see through it. The goo covered her entire face, leaving only a hole for the nose and eyes. By now, most of the goo was all over her lower body and had already melted most of her clothes. It was just finishing with melting her shoes, and slipping around her feet.

Max moved away, unable to do anything at all anymore. He looked at the horror in May's eyes. He couldn't do anything to help her. He saw her eyes begin to change in color a bit, and twist to match that of a Sneasel's eyes.

A whole for the mouth opened, and she could finally take in air by sucking in a large amount of air. When she had opened her mouth, Max saw that the inside of her mouth had changed around a little to go with that of a Sneasel. Then, her face began to stretch a bit as May used her slowly claw turning hands to hold her mouth and try to push it back to where it was always positioned.

As she held her mouth, she turned over, revealing her back side. Max didn't want to look, but near her butt, three feather-ish tails grew out. Pikachu then slapped Max for looking there, still thinking Max was Meowth.

May began shaking. Her last words were as followed; "Max…please…help…"

Then the shrinking came. A reddish-pink colored leaf looking thing slowly pushed its way out of May's left ear. She winced, but could not say a word about it.

She looked at her hands, and saw them meld together right in front of her eyes to form two claws instead. The same happened with her feet. She heard her own bones inside her body cracking and rearranging. She had to give a tear; it did not hurt, but just the thought of changing species was painful.

More shrinking; she looked at the rest of her body in front of her eyes as she saw her legs getting shorter. She moved a clawed toe, feeling it and seeing it obey her thoughts. She tried to say something else, but she was silenced; she could not form words.

She felt another jewel press its way out of her skull, on her forehead. She knew what that was. And that was probably the last change she needed. She closed her eyes.

When she stopped hearing her bones crunching, she opened her eyes again. And she knew she was fully a Sneasel.

May crawled to the wall, then looked at herself. She covered where her breasts would have been had she been human; she couldn't even see them. She tried to say that she felt very naked, but no words would escape her lips as she tried to speak again. She tried again and again, but nothing would come out.

"May…are you alright?" Max asked as he came closer.

Pikachu stepped in front of him very quickly. "Go back to Team Rocket Meowth; we don't need you right now!" he kicked Max back as he used the momentum of Max to jump closer to May, standing right next to her once he gained his balance.

Max fell to the floor and could only stare for a second or two.

"P—Pikachu—it's me, Max!" If only Max could speak in his own voice, then maybe Pikachu would be able to see the truth. But his voice was all Meowth's.

Pikachu stared at Max for a second. "You liar! If you were to be Max, then you would not be able to speak! Now leave."

Max just blinked. He thought that since he was now a Pokémon, maybe he could understand Pikachu's language. Nope, all he heard was the normal Pikachu speak. That's the same thing May heard as Pikachu tried to help her.

"What?" Max asked.

"You heard me loud and clear; now get out of here before I shock you!" Pikachu's cheeks began to give off a small discharge of electricity around the room.

Max was alarmed now. Slowly, he backed off.

"But…it's me…Max…"

"Get out of here—!"

It was at this moment that May put her new clawed hand upon Pikachu's shoulder. He turned to face her, and with her other arm, she pointed to Max, and then pointed at herself. She did it again, pointing harder and sharper at Max, then harder and sharper at herself.

"Huh?" Pikachu wondered.

"She's trying to say that I'm Max, her brother."

"Quiet you; I don't trust you. May, what is it?"

She tried to form words, this time only mouthing them. Pikachu looked at her, trying to decipher the movement. Was it maybe…Max?

It took several minutes, but finally, Pikachu got the picture. And he blushed, realizing what he had just been telling Max.

He turned to face him. Only a moment passed; within that short moment, he only thought of saying two words. "I'm sorry."

He didn't know what else to say. Good thing he didn't have to finish, as everything was suddenly rudely interrupted.

From out of seemingly nowhere, the Sneasel May had been transformed into crashed into the room, rolling on the floor, but quickly getting balance again. She bared her sharp teeth as Sandslash entered right after her, looking very angry all the same. They both looked equally beat up.

Sandslash jumped for Sneasel, but she sidestepped, making sure that she also managed to kick Sandslash where it hurt with her clawed foot. Ouch.

They continued their never-ending battle right near May, Max, and Pikachu. It was actually pretty dangerous to be that close. Pikachu motioned for the two to follow him as not to interfere with the battle, and just get out of there.

As Pikachu lead Max out, May turned around to grab her Pokéball she had left on the floor. It held Combusken inside. She didn't know how to feel towards the ball; would Combusken react differently to her? How would she react?

May didn't have much time to think about it; within the next second, Sandslash got confused as of who was the Sneasel he was attacking, so he went ahead and grabbed May by the neck, pulling her back. She dropped the Pokéball.

Sandslash held her right on the ground in a very painful grip. "Not so mighty now, huh?!"

May tried to say something, but couldn't even _scream_. She tried to bring her clawed hand to go around and slash at Sandslash, but she couldn't his grip was too painful, and she felt that if she moved at all, her arms would break off.

"Wrong Sneasel!" the other Sneasel said, jumping on back of Sandslash's quills. He let go of May for a moment, trying to reach behind him as he turned and turned, the Sneasel holding on tight to his back and not letting go. She was riding Sandslash.

Just as Sandslash was about to crash into a wall with his back, Sneasel jumped off of his back, landing on the ground, near the quill that had fallen from Sandslash's back.

"You want your quill back?!" Sneasel taunted. "Then here; have it!" she tossed the thing right towards Sandslash. Only, that was not the real quill. That was the fake one; the mirror one.

Sandslash quickly dodged out of the way, knowing better than to be hurt by his own thing. At that moment, walking without a care in the world behind Sandslash, his back facing them, Brock appeared. The quill hit sharply on his back, forcing Brock to fall on the floor from the pain of the shot.

Yeah, you basically already know what's going to happen now.

As Brock had fallen, he dropped something that was in his hands. When he had been walking, he passed several areas that held glass mirrors of some sort. He had found it strange when he had put his hands _through_ some of them.

He was very freaked out in those moments, so he decided to pay close attention to the mirrors. Before he had gone on a trip with Ash and Misty, he had held something secret with him. It was a memory of what he had left behind in Pewter. He kept it secret for so long. He pulled it out in the cave, only to be able to reach for a replication.

He had dropped the replication as he had fallen. And now, the goo was moving from the back where it had hit Brock, and beginning to go around him.

Sneasel and Sandslash were still fighting each other to no ends. It was then that Sandslash decided the best technique; dig. He dug underground as quickly as he could, throwing dirt and dust all around the room. Sneasel couldn't see a thing. She ran forward while attacking, in hopes of hitting something. Then, Sandslash appeared right in front of her, punching her with his claws and throwing her across the room.

By now, May had already gotten back to her Pokéball. Was it about the right time to open it and show Combusken herself? It just might be. She opened the Pokéball, and waited for the form to appear before her.

"Haha! I win!" he said aloud. Sneasel coughed as she tried to get up from the floor. It was then, that even though the room was not clear of dust yet, that she noticed something on Sandslash's neck.

"What is _that_?" she pointed.

Sandslash looked at his neck, finding the necklace around him. Then, goo began to ooze from it. "What the?" quickly, before he got any more distracted by the ooze, he ran up to Sneasel and punched her with all his might. This made her fly across the room.

She ended up crashing into Combusken right as she appeared outside of her Pokéball. Both crashed near a wall.

The little dust storm Sandslash had created was strong; it was enough to lift small papers (but hey, wasn't that just about every storm?). All the time, May's bandanna had been floating in the air. The fake one.

It landed neatly on top of Combusken's head. Yes, there was goo.

Somehow, through this ordeal, Brock had managed to crawl right out of the cave area where he was hit, going back to where he was last. There, he laid down. He could feel the ooze going all around his back; then he could hear things popping in his back, feeling his shirt rip.

The ooze circled around his torso, and went all over his arms. They began to melt his clothing as they rolled over them. It went all over his body and melted just about everything.

Quickly, he stood up and looked at himself. He gasped and tried to hold the ooze away as it began to cover his face. He was afraid it was going to suffocate him. And for a moment, it was. Then the holes where the nose was were made and the eye holes too.

He was standing up and looked pretty much like an anthropomorphic Sandslash. He couldn't see himself completely, but he could tell by what he was seeing when he looked down and make a general picture in his mind.

He tried ripping the ooze off of him, but it kept covering wherever he tried to pull from it. He tried again and again, but it would always cover that part.

Then, it felt like his skin. Rough skin. When he touched it with his clawed hand, he felt it as his own.

Brock felt his face pulling out. All he could do was muffle out what sounded like screams; he didn't even have a mouth yet.

He felt his face push forward, along with his nose. He could see it with his eyes. Speaking of his eyes, they began changing as he watched, becoming completely black and with more of a Sandslash color.

Then the bone cracking came. He heard his own bones crack before he started shrinking. His torso was changing too as he got smaller.

It did not hurt him, but he could feel the changes taking place. The thoughts of them were hurting him. He fell on the floor to his side as he shrunk and more bones began to crack. He winced every time he heard his own bones cracking. He didn't want to admit it, but he also thought that he was getting a bit…fatter…? No, that's not the right word. It was more of…muscles…yeah, there we go.

Brock reached one clawed hand into the air as he saw the goo fusing his fingers together to make the shape of a Sandslash's claw. He yelped as soon as a mouth was formed, but that was just about the last thing he was able to do until he was silenced by an unseen force.

--

The night had passed by really fast. Ash had slept outside. He looked so peaceful in his sleeping position right next to the tree. Nature seemed to be going by really smooth too, like leaves falling and almost hitting him, just to turn in peaceful waves around him. Then there were the many bug Pokémon moving around him, all so peacefully and happily.

Ash yawned, and slowly awoken to the bright sunlight that was coming from the day. It was to be a whole new day; it was supposed to be a peaceful day as he waited for Mewtwo and Thian to get there. He sighed, and took in a deep breath—

—followed by a very hard pounding amount of water that appeared from nowhere, throwing Ash right against the tree.

Right in front of Ash, Mewtwo and Thian appeared, looking equally wet. Well, maybe not as equal; Ash looked like he just got out of a pool whereas Mewtwo and Thian looked like they were in the rain for a little while.

Ash tried to ask what the heck just happened, yet he could still not form words.

_Just think it, Ash_, Mewtwo responded.

Of course! Mewtwo was a psychic type and could read people's minds quite easily.

Thian walked closer to the extremely drenched Ash. "I see that you are doing fine. I can only hope that Macaria is safe and sound."

There were question marks right over Ash's head.

"My mate? She is alright, _right_?"

Oh, so that was the name of his mate. Nice; sounded like macaroni.

Hey wait a minute; did Ash just actually understand what Thian had said?

_You understood it because I translated._

Oh, of course. That's why he could understand. Please note the un-visible sarcasm when he thought this.

"Well…? My mate?"

Whoops, he almost forgot to answer him.

Ash nodded, knowing that he was right. Thian smirked, then left to go to the caves. Mewtwo followed. Ash had to only wonder why Mewtwo had decided to help; I mean, was there really a reason? Did Thian do something that would have possibly caused Mewtwo to help him? For some reason, Ash did not see Mewtwo as the helping hand type.

After awhile, Ash realized he was still a Marowak. According to what Pikachu had been able to tell him, from what little Ash had understood, he was supposed to turn into a human once Thian returned.

Thian was home; and Ash was still a Marowak. Maybe the effects were to take a little time before he was to turn into a human again, or maybe Thian had to see his mate.

Ash really wanted to follow Thian into the cave, but he was afraid that maybe Macaria would get freaked out for seeing two Thian's. It was then that Ash guessed that he was just going to have to wait it out outside.

--

Sunlight was shining into the cave entrance of the once home to Alagan. May, Max, and Brock's stuff was still there. Max, still being a Meowth, was the only creature to escape from the darkest corners of the cave. He came to the campsite, and just stared at the items there. There was his stuff; there was May's stuff; there was Brock's stuff. He was told to just get a pair of clothing from May and Brock's stuff. And he did.

The clothing was for the new Brock, Sandslash, and the new May, Cumbusken. When they had transformed, they sort of…weren't…yeah.

Don't make me go into detail here; if you want me to, shame on you.

Max took the clothing, and as quickly as he had made his way to the surface (which was not fast at all), he turned around to make the trek back to everyone else.

Max had to stop before he got any deeper into the cave again. He heard something off in the distance. It sounded like a very loud Pokémon cry, though he could not put his finger on which Pokémon it was that had made the noise.

He put it aside, and continued back down with the clothing.

--

Unfortunately, Ash was closer to the Pokémon cry. It was Thian's voice. All Ash heard was a normal Marowak scream, but he could just pick it out. He remembered it when he was first transformed almost three days ago.

Again, he wanted to run into the cave, but he felt that he could not. He felt that if he did, he would worsen the situation. Although he really wanted to know what was going on, he could not just barge. He had to wait and ask Thian when and if he came out.

So Mewtwo decided to give Ash mental pictures of what was going on.

And Thian's mate was on the floor, almost out of air, with Thian right over her.

_Ash, I have the strangest feeling that you have failed to complete your task._

But that was impossible…he had done everything! Thian even said that if his mate were to die, his mission would be to protect his younglings from anything dangerous. He completed his mission fair and square!

_Part of your mission, I think, was to care for the younglings and Thian's mate. Did you do either?_

Neither. Uh oh. But that still isn't fair; how the heck does a Marowak be able to attack, move around and all that stuff and be extremely dead sick the next moment?

Ash was now seeing Mewtwo trying to heal Macaria. There was a purple aura moving towards her, surrounding her. Ash felt a connection with her, even though he only knew her for a short time. And just the mental image of a broken down Thian sent chills down his back. This was…he hated to say it, but this was his fault.

And now, Ash believed that he screwed himself up big time.

It was about an hour later that Thian and Mewtwo appeared right in front of Ash again. They had used teleport. Ash didn't find it right to leave, so he stayed until something happened. Apparently, while he waited, Thian and Mewtwo took Macaria to Mewtwo's place, along with the younglings.

Now how come it could not take that fast to get to Thian's territory?

_She is not dead. She is dying._

Those words again hurt Ash, even though he didn't know the Marowak much. Ash was not a cold hearted person; he couldn't take feeling that a tragedy was all his fault, and he most definitely could not take the fact that the person who had unexpectedly thrust a job upon him now found him very…useless.

"I will take you to Alagan. He will help you become a human again."

That was all Thian said. Mewtwo had translated with thought. Ash understood. And the three were on their way to Alagan's cave, not knowing that the beast had already moved on.

--

The place pretty much looked the same as the last time Thian visited, wanting a cure for his mate. The three went into the dark cave. They didn't go far until they found the trainer equipment on the floor.

_There are probably trainers lurking around here; be careful, both of you._

"Oh, what about you?" Thian asked. But when he had turned, he did not find Mewtwo. "Mewtwo? Where have you gone?"

_I am here; I am just not visible. Let us go find Alagan._

"I can do that," Thian said. He then shouted at the top of his lungs, very, very loud, almost as loud as Sandslash's from earlier on in the story, "ALAGAN!"

Even as he screamed, there was no response. After awhile of waiting, Mewtwo had doubts that this Alagan even lived in the cave they were at.

"I do not understand; he was here!" Thian said, arguing over the fact that there was no response.

_Well, maybe he's a deep sleeper like me._

That thought had come from Ash; not Mewtwo. It was possibly the first thing Ash had thought the whole way there.

_Come on then; we must search. _Mewtwo.

They did not split up; they stayed together as they searched. Not much searching happened. Soon, they found a Sneasel running towards their direction. She tripped right in front of them. She looked up at them, pleading with her eyes. It looked like she was trying to say something, but was either in a panic or mute.

Nothing else needed to be said; something hit the Sneasel from behind, and in the next moment, the Pokémon was dragged into a Pokéball.

The trainer who had caught the Sneasel was May.

_Thian, Ash, stand still. I will get rid of her._

_No! Wait, that's May; one of my friends!_

Even though Ash could not see Mewtwo, he felt that he was ready to attack her if something was to go wrong. But what could go wrong? Maybe the fact that Ash looked like the Marowak next to him and the fact that he just saw May capture a Sneasel right in front of his eyes can push the threat that something could go wrong, but I mean, what are the chances?

Ash tried to say something, but found he could not. Once he looked into May's eyes though, Ash found that there was something wrong. Her eyes may have looked just like they had always looked; they may have been the same colors as before, they may have had just about the same everything. But it was the look that she gave him.

Ash never knew May to give this look to Pokémon of any kind, and he certainly wouldn't find it right to see that she was looking with interest at both Ash and Thian when they were both a species that Ash basically _knew_ May wouldn't want on her team if she were ever to become a trainer.

And she had another empty Pokéball held. Ash took notice on the two Pokéballs strapped on her belt; one from the newly captured Sneasel. The other was probably holding Cumbusken's ball.

So May kept her gaze on Ash, while getting the ball ready ever so slowly. Ash had to wonder what he was doing just standing there now; now would be about the right time to get away from the thrown ball if she was to throw it.

"Cumb," May said silently. That was all Ash, Thian, and Mewtwo needed to know to tell if she was May or not. This was not May; the same thing must have happened to whatever the Pokémon really was that had happened to Ash.

_I am ready to defeat her when you say you are._

That was good to know.

_Now would be about the good time_, Ash thought to Mewtwo as May reeled back and threw the Pokéball.

Mewtwo easily stopped the ball in mid-air, then crushed it into a bazillion peaces right in front of Ash's face.

Ash was stunned for only a moment. It was then that he found he needed to talk to May one way or another. Even though this was not the real May, he had to speak to her. He just had to.

So he started, and Mewtwo translated through thought as he spoke.

_Who are you?_

The response was a bunch of Cumbusken words. Needless to say, this was a Cumbusken.

_Where is May?_

There was a long silence. Ash moved just a little closer. Thian watched his every move. Mewtwo kept an eye on May.

May pointed towards the Pokéball that contained the Sneasel that had fallen right in front of him. No one said a word for a long moment.

_So…she was turned into a Sneasel?_

The May imposter nodded.

…_Where…where is Max?_

May imposter pointed to the other Pokéball. Ash now knew that Max was transformed into a Pokémon too; what he was transformed into, he was uncertain.

_What about Brock?_

May imposter pointed down the rest of the cave. After a short pause, Ash continued.

_Is he…a Pokémon too?_

May imposter began to have tears in her eyes. She nodded.

_Why did you put May and Max in Pokéballs?_

Ash was afraid of what she might say. It was pretty scary even having the conversation, knowing that at any moment, she could turn on him and throw the Pokéball to capture him. That was a very scary thought.

It was at this moment that Pikachu seemed to all of a sudden pop out of nowhere from the ceiling, landing between his trainer and May imposter. He looked like one very angry Pikachu.

Sparks formed on Pikachu's cheeks as he was ready to thundershock.

"Ash, Cumbusken betrayed us all. She captured May and Max; she forced the Sandslash I saved from before to do the same to Brock in order to have their _own_ trainer adventure. She is evil; do not trust her!"

May imposter shook her head as if to say no, with a lot of worry in her eyes. She was probably thinking that Ash was going to side with Pikachu and force her to do something she was not prepared for. Still, she remained as the helpless type.

_Pikachu, where is Brock?_

Pikachu turned around, surprised by the thought speaking of such. "How are you doing that?" he asked, not seeing the invisible Mewtwo right next to him. You'd think he'd be able to _smell_ him at least?

_That doesn't matter right now; where's Brock?_

"He is probably inside a Pokéball held by a fellow Sandslash I once knew! I am going to hunt him down, and I will make everything right Ash. You'll see; and I am going to start by fixing _this_ mess first."

_How?_

That was the big question; how the heck were they going to fix this problem?

"I don't know."

_But where's Brock?_

"I told you already…he's in a Pokéball."

_Who's Pokéball? Where is the Pokéball?_

"The Brock imposter has him Ash! And I'm going to stop him when I stop May."

_And where is he?_

There was a silence. But, in the silence, you could also see the tears forming in Pikachu's eyes. Only he knew where both the Sandslash and Brock had gone. Only he knew. And now he was supposed to tell where they were.

"The Brock imposter took him and left! He's not here; he's somewhere out there in the forests getting closer to town!"

Pikachu looked down, and began to have more tears. Wow, Ash had only seen this happen once before, and it was a very faint memory. Most importantly, Pikachu had been crying for _him_ that time, not Brock.

May imposter pointed to herself, then began speaking in Cumbusken language. Mewtwo translated.

_I can help you; I can get you all to Brock and Sandslash. Brock was my friend to; I am going to help get him back by pretending to be a trainer. It's the only way to get to him._

_Oh? And was this May's plan, or was this yours?_ Ash's words were said. May imposter could not say a thing against it. _I understand what you are trying to do…but does May want this to happen this way?_

Another moment of silence. And then, May imposter did the Pikachu; she cried.

--

Alagan burped. Oh, that was very delicious it was. How tasty could it get? No, he had to throw himself onto them all, eat, lick, love. Ah, he made a mental note to look, chase, destroy, and eat from more ice cream trucks that were driving by. If it weren't for the Zubats, he probably would not have found out about the delicious food items.

Now, he was returning to his cave. What glory. His home. He would have been home sooner, but unfortunately, he wanted to find more ice cream trucks. He fell out of luck and decided to head back home, which was where he was now going.

He entered the cave. Now time for some well deserved sleep.

--

There was a thud above. May imposter, Pikachu, Ash, Thian, and even Mewtwo looked up at the ceiling.

"Ah yes, Alagan is home," Thian stated.

This only took about five seconds to register to everyone. Registration was saying it was a good thing. Oh wait, but how would a large Aerodactyl react to a couple of strangers hanging in his cave?

"What's this?" Oh, well now they were going to find out. "What in the name of freggin' Pokégods and demons is going on?!"

No one responded. First of all, Ash did not have the ability to speak. Mewtwo did not want to reveal himself. Pikachu was shocked, along with May imposter. That left only Thian to answer.

"Well, you see—," Thian started.

"GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE I FORCE YOU OUT!" Alagan did not have to show anything to say that he was serious. How unfortunate that he decided not to give anyone enough time, and was getting a hyper beam ready and shining in his mouth (which is probably a bad idea being in a cave and all).

Right as Alagan let out the blast that would kill all, Mewtwo appeared right in front, and completely transported the attack out of the cave.

--

"I freggin' hate my life!" said a completely random trainer somewhere far away from the cave. In an instant, a bright light smashed right into him, burning the poor boy to a crisp. Too bad he was still alive. Now he would just be in pure pain until somebody, if anybody, showed up and helped.

--

Alagan looked very much surprised at Mewtwo's presence; as the same went for May imposter and Pikachu.

_Alagan, let us settle this calmly_.

That was all that needed to be said. Alagan stared directly at Mewtwo, a stern look spread across him. "Mewtwo; what brings you here?"

And so he told him; Pikachu also saying what happened, being one of the only ones in the room that was there at the moment Alagan had left the cave. They even said what happened with Thian and Ash after Alagan noticed that Thian had returned with an exact replica of himself.

"And you all say this happened the moment I left?"

There was nothing but a nod from all to confirm.

Alagan looked at Ash. He knew from what they had told him that Ash was the one Thian had chosen by accident. He could also tell by the fact that Ash was still a Marowak that Ash's mission either was not complete yet, or he had failed his mission. Once he asked about the job of Ash, Thian answered that Ash had…failed.

"Well, it looks like you are pretty much screwed, human."

_What_. That thought had come from Mewtwo, and it was pretty much more of a statement at that. He looked about ready to beat the crap out of someone.

"It is not my fault; blame Thian. Thian chose, Ash failed, and now he is stuck."

There was silence in the room. Then Ash said something through thought to Alagan by Mewtwo.

_Are you sure that you can't change me back?_

"I am very much sure on that part. I am sorry. Now leave, all."

_Well…what about my talking? Why can't I talk?_

"Kid, you can't talk because you are trying to form words that a Marowak cannot form. You are trying to speak human; try saying the word 'Marowak.'"

And so Ash did. "Marowak."

That was a big surprise to Ash; to everyone except Alagan, actually.

"Great, your dilemma is solved. Now leave."

_But…can't there be a way for me to turn back into me again?_

"No. Now leave."

I am not sure if Mewtwo had knuckles or not, but for some reason, Mewtwo was able to make the noise of cracking them.

"Alright, fine. But you are not going to like the final decision."

_Wait, does it have anything to do with us doing something completely stupid or random?_

"No, you just have to jump into the glass mirror and become your reflection. Now do it, or get out."

_Does it have…consequences?_

"JUST GET THE HECK DONE WITH IT!"

Mewtwo began with, I _have to ask you to calm yourself Alagan. I can and _will _defeat you. If you are skipping over a detail that might cause the downfall of Ash, then I will hunt you down._

"Oh, well I am terribly sorry. Because in truth, I do not want _that_ happening to me." Sarcasm was really obvious.

_Will jumping into the mirror really help? Ash thought to him._

"Why not? Try it."

Ash was very hesitant on doing this. he turned around, finding May imposter still there. He looked at the Pokéballs on her belt, knowing that May and Max were in them. He just couldn't keep that image in his mind. He told Mewtwo to translate as he thought again.

_Cumbusken, can you please free May and Max?_

Of course, she had to listen. She freed them, both falling onto the floor very dizzy. May was having trouble trying to say something, unable to say a word, while Max was the one that spoke.

"Oh man, what just happened?"

He stood up wobbly. It was weird standing up; for some reason, he felt that Meowth the species should be on all fours, yet he was able to accomplish standing. Maybe it was because he was a replica of Meowth of Team Rocket.

_Oh my Mew, that voice is horrible!_

Mewtwo was the one that had said that.

"Hey!" Max cried.

"As long as it's not _your_ voice he is talking about," Pikachu muttered silently to himself.

Mewtwo, _I am sorry, but that voice is just not you._

Ash, _but that isn't his voice…hey, that's Meowth's voice!_

Mewtwo searched with a Psychic into Max's memory, closely inspecting. Then he came across it; his real voice, and Max's transformation. So that is how it had all happened. Well, now he knew something. And he believed he could help him now.

_Don't move._

Mewtwo came right up to Max. May just watched from the floor, unable to say anything. Ash wondered what the heck Mewtwo was about to do with Pikachu thinking the same thing. Thian stayed in the shadows, and Alagan seemed bored beyond doubt.

There was an aura coming from Mewtwo, and it was going directly into Max. For a moment, Max struggled against it, but after awhile, just let it take control of him. After a few minutes, the glow was gone, and Max was just left there to blink. And then he fell to the floor all hardcore.

"Ow, what did you do?" Max asked. Then he gasped; the voice was his. His own voice; Max's voice.

_There you go. No thanks required._

Max tried to stand again, but found it very hard to do so. He tried again and again, but he kept falling over. "Why can't I stand up anymore?" he asked.

_Because I made you back to you, taking away any reference to the Meowth you were being._

Max looked himself over. "But I still look like a Meowth…"

_I am not a magical being. I don't have the ability to shape-change another being. What I did was more of an illusion, if anything._

Max still tried to stand.

Ash had to have Mewtwo translate again.

Max, May. Come on, let's return to our normal selves.

--

They were all gone. They had all traveled down, deeper into the cave, towards the glass mirrors. Thian and Alagan were the only ones left behind. The only reason Thian was still up there was because Alagan told him to stay.

"Thian, I have to tell you something," Alagan said.

Thian turned to him, a confused expression on him. "What is it?"

Then Alagan thrust Thian to the wall, and held him there. "If they do _one_ thing to my cave, I swear I will have your head!" he whispered.

Meanwhile, with everyone else, they were walking towards the reflection room. Along the way, May was trying to get Mewtwo's attention. After getting it, she thought to him of what she wanted. It appeared that even though she was about to transform back into her normal self, she wanted to talk like how Max was. Though Mewtwo was annoyed by this, he decided to grant the girl this, and gave her the ability to speak as he did to Max.

Ash saw this. If it weren't for the fact that just one step and he was in the mirror room, then he probably would have asked for the same thing; the ability to speak. He wondered why Mewtwo hadn't done that to him earlier.

All the questions he had were washed away as he looked at the reflection in the glass mirror; Thian. That was all he saw. He knew that when he walked towards Thian, he would become himself. Or, at least that is what Alagan had said.

There was a long moment of a pause. Everyone watched Ash as he stood in front of his reflection. Then it just hit him!

Ash thought to only Mewtwo. No one would hear him, as it was not a translation. It was only Mewtwo who would hear him.

_Mewtwo…_

_Yes Ash?_

_I kind of…don't have clothes. _

It was at that moment that in a flash, Ash's old clothing seemed to appear right on top of him. No, I mean his old clothing; like, from when he first had Pikachu.

_I remembered what you wore the day you helped me, Ash._

Well, that was good. Now he was a Marowak wearing oversized clothing that he stopped wearing a long while ago. Well, it was better than nothing.

"Good luck Ash," May said.

Ash gave a thumbs up through the gloves. Then, he walked right into the reflection. On the other side, Thian's reflection seemed to stand and stare right at him. And he smiled.

Ash was scared for a little bit. Thian's reflection reached right at Ash, grabbing the skull. He then, forcefully, removed it from Ash.

Along with the skull was the skin, that was stretching as Thian's reflection pulled. The skull, and the top part of the skin was gone, leaving Ash's head on a Marowak body standing. Then, in a fast motion, Thian's reflection pulled at the rest of Ash's skin, pulling off all the scales. He grabbed Ash at certain points and began stretching him, to make him back to his normal size. He felt some of his bones building again, forming his old body.

The clothing Mewtwo had given him was being fit. As Ash grew, he grew right into the clothes. Then, it was finally complete, and Ash was human again.

Thian's reflection redirected Ash, and led him right out of the mirror. Ash could only blink as he exited the mirror.

"Wow…" he said. As soon as he said that, he covered his mouth. For three freggin' days, he was forced to be silenced. He actually said his first words since the last three days. "I'm ME!" he shouted, jumping into the air. Pikachu was happy too; he jumped right on top of Ash, and Ash hugged him. "Hey buddy! It's me; I'm back to normal!"

It was a happy moment for the two; Ash tripped and fell on his back, Pikachu right on top of him. He was not in pain though, he was still laughing with Pikachu, Pikachu laughing with Ash. He hugged Pikachu, not wanting to let go.

"I'm back!" he cried, happy. When he looked back at the mirror, it was not Thian's reflection there, but his own. And his own reflection tossed Ash's old hat through the mirror. Ash caught it.

The mirror reflection nodded, then seemed to fall backwards and to the same position that Ash was on the floor.

May stood in front of the mirror now. Cumbusken was right by her side.

"Go Cumbusken; I'll wait," she said. Cumbusken nodded and went into the mirror.

May's reflection stood in front of Cumbusken. She smiled, and then pulled at the skin. In a hurry, May's reflection started to go all around Cumbusken and take away the skin. At one point, she slid and was completely ripping the skin off like tape. Cumbusken's feathers were under the skin, and as May's reflection continued her round, she also was pushing Cumbusken back into her own shape.

And after a minute or two, Cumbusken was Cumbusken again. May's reflection led her out, and Cumbusken stood as she exited. She was still wearing May's clothes, which were hanging all over her.

May had to laugh. At the same time, she was nervous. Now seeing how the mirrors worked, she was just about ready to go into the mirror herself.

With that, she turned to Cumbusken, who was already removing May's outfit. May first put on the red bandanna over her head, then began to put the other oversized clothes over the rest of her body.

In a short time, May was ready. She stood right before the mirror, not wanting to wait any longer to return to human form. She walked right to the mirror. She raised a claw, and placed it on the glass. She felt that glass.

Wait a minute, she felt the glass!

She rubbed all around the glass, trying to find a way to actually get through it. She rubbed all around, her claws scraping and making loud noises on the glass as Ash, Pikachu, Max, and even Mewtwo tried covering their ears from the loudness.

"There's nothing here!" May panicked.

"Of course there is not." It was Alagan. May did not understand what Alagan had said, but she understood that it was probably something bad by the tone of his voice.

Alagan entered the room quietly. He stood in front of everyone. "You see, this is what happens when you abuse the mirror's power." He pointed to the mirror before continuing. "I have found some secrets after living here for the longest time. I knew a little about the mirror and the powers it possesses. I believe you have all overloaded the amount of power it has."

"Overloaded?" Max asked.

"How?!" May cried.

"There were far too many transformations it had to accomplish; it has just worn out. Do not worry, all you have to do is wait until it can make transforming objects. Come back in five years, and I can easily say that it will be working again. As of now, it is overloaded, and will be for the next four years."

Very surprising there, and not in a good way. Mewtwo, Cumbusken, and Pikachu were the only ones that understood him. And they were angry.

A purple ball began to form in Mewtwo's hands, ready to be tossed at Alagan. Electricity began to ring on Pikachu's cheeks. Cumbusken's eyes were becoming a dark red color as they burned with flames.

_You my friend, are a monster!_

"I am no monster," Alagan responded. "Now I want all of you out of my cave. Now."

Even though Pikachu, Cumbusken, and Mewtwo were the only ones that could understand Alagan, the other three were not idiots; they knew something was wrong.

"Alagan, what did you do with the mirrors?!" Ash yelled, ready for a battle.

"I did nothing; now leave."

_Alagan, give us the real answer; what happened?_

There was a sternness in the way Mewtwo had said it. Alagan sighed, and decided to repeat himself. "All that happened was that the mirrors were abused, and now that there were many transformations, you are going to have to wait four or five years until they are working properly. I did nothing. Now, all of you, leave!"

And Alagan was right; there was nothing they could do that could possibly make him make the mirrors work. May began to have tears in her eyes, along with Max. Ash saw this. He wasn't a cold person. He cried when he was hurt, and he cried when he saw someone hurt. He just saw that his two friends were going to have to possibly stay stuck as Pokémon for the next five years, with no way of changing back.

Ash looked away. He didn't want to think about it. Though, anyone could tell what was happening when Ash did this. he was…crying. His tears were donated for May and Max. He couldn't believe it…it was even going to happen to Brock too, wherever he was.

"Now, just leave."

Slowly, one by one, the group left. They were leaving the cave, all hopes crushed. Mewtwo kept an eye on Alagan. He looked very angry.

Right as everyone was gone from the room except for Alagan and Mewtwo, Mewtwo only had one thing to say. "You are disgusting; I am looking at you the way I once saw all humans. You are a disgrace." And with that, he left the room. Alagan did not shift; he just wanted everyone out of his cave.

They were on their way out of the cave. No telling how life was going to treat them this time around. Or, at least Max and May. They were Pokémon now. Oh dear.

So they didn't know how the react when they reached the mouth of the cave and saw a Sandslash standing against the wall, waiting. Next to the Sandslash was a chained up Brock, trying to break free.

Ash remembered those chains; they were real chains meant as a joke once when Brock said he would tie Ash down if he didn't calm down from an exciting battle. He was joking, but the chains were very real.

He used them to capture his imposter.

--

So that was it. Mewtwo sent Brock imposter packing with a hard blow and he went, like, 325,812,392 yards and vanished like Team Rocket in a blast off.

Everyone had to tell Brock the news that he was going to be stuck as a Sandslash for the next five years. He wasn't _totally_ down on it, but he didn't like it. Still, that's how they were going to have to deal.

Mewtwo wasn't so bad; he gave Brock the ability to speak the human language too, and gave all three, Brock, May, and Max the ability to fully understand Pokémon language. He was trying his best to cheer up the three, but knowing you are going to be a Pokémon for five years wasn't so great.

So, he did what they had wanted to do since the night Ash was transformed. He led them to town.

At town, there was basically a big problem between the entire gang. They could not go on the way they were going on. First of all, Ash could not leave the town with May, Max, and Brock not being registered Pokémon. He couldn't even leave with freggin' Cumbusken because Cumbusken belonged to May, and May was nowhere in sight to Joy, Jenny, and other authorities. As much as Ash hated to do this, he had to capture May, Max, and Brock in a Pokéball in order to go on, and May had to give Cumbusken over to Ash.

As easy as this sounded, it was actually pretty complicated. Still, it happened, and May, Max, and Brock now belonged to Ash, as much as he didn't like it.

So, where was a lost traveler with no traveling companions but Pokémon that were once human to go?

Home.

Ash offered to drop May and Max off at their hometown, but they refused. They didn't want to be seen the way they were by their parents.

So, he took them all back to Kanto. It was there where he almost decided to quite Pokémon training, when Professor Oak and Gary urged him on. Heck, even May, Max, and Brock urged him on, saying that they would fight with him. To top it off, Pikachu urged him on.

So, he decided to give training another try. Tracey volunteered to be a companion, in which Ash said he was okay with it.

They went to Cerulean, where they met up with Misty. Of course she agreed to come along.

For about a week, Ash kept it secret that May, Max, and Brock were Pokémon. This didn't last long. Max decided to tell everyone who he was and what happened. And he told who May was, and Brock too.

This was very shocking to Misty and Tracey. Come on, wouldn't you be shocked?

That night was a long session of May, Max, and Brock telling the story of what happened, and Tracey began sketching what it might have looked like to be at the events when they occurred. They were strikingly wrong.

Well, after that, they just continued with their journey. Battles were won, friendships were made, everything. And it was all going very good.

Soon, a year had passed. They were all journeying across the land. And Ash decided to stop.

"What's wrong?" Misty asked.

Ash looked at a mountain, not tearing his gaze away. "It happened over there," he said, pointing. They all got together, looking at the mountain. It was where it had all began. It was actually…frightening, now that Ash thought about it. It was weird; he never remembered being scared in his life!

That mountain, way within in was the cause of what happened to May, Max and Brock.

"Ash," Brock said slowly.

Ash turned around to face the Sandslash. "Yeah Brock?"

He took a deep breath before continuing. "To tell you the truth…I don't want to be a human anymore."

Well that was pretty shocking.

"Yeah, me neither…" Max said.

Ash couldn't believe what he was hearing. Misty, Tracey, and Pikachu could no doubt not believe it either.

In this turn of events, Ash turned to the last person there; May. He looked at her, as if waiting for an answer. "Do you?" he asked.

May stayed quiet for a long time. She thought a lot about being human again, doing the things that she had always wished to do. Taking Cumbusken to contest and wining and all. Now, she was a Pokémon. Misty was the coordinator when it came to contests, and May was her Pokémon at that time. May remembered winning her first contest as a Pokémon. They had only gone to seven, and the third one was the one she had gotten first place at. And she felt…good.

Still, she wanted to be human more than anything. But now…now that she knew that Max and Brock didn't want to be human anymore…she felt alone. She didn't want to be alone, as much as she did want to be human.

"No…" May answered.

And it was settled there. They would never return next to the mountain; this was their journey now.


	11. Digital Snow

Digital Snow

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the idea. Pokémon is trademark Nintendo and the Pokémon Company. Digimon is trademarked Disney and Bandai. Pikachu's outcome form is Pikamon, which was made by Bebi-Vegeta (A DeviantArt Artist), of which I have permission to use in some of my stories.

This Story was done by me (Ryu the Weredragon) and my little buddy, Kyle Roocoon.

- - - -

Ash, Misty, Max, Brock and May were worn out from a long day of training and adventuring. Max, being the youngest, had mostly gone to watch and study (being 8 years old). He desperately wanted Pokemon of his own to train, but he wasn't allowed to, until he was ten. Until then, he had his playful Poochyena companion who he kept as a pet. Also, being 8, Max was the first to be ready to leave in the morning, and usually the first to wear out. Everyone in the group was fairly tired, and they were walking towards nearby Faytown.

As the walked into the town, with familiar square buildings and large signs that clearly marked every important building were a great comfort to the tired kids. As they looked aorund for town Pokemon Center, they saw a stange sign advertising something they never shopped for in exotic places. Clothes. Even though they were worn out, all of them felt like slipping in to see if there was something inside that they could wear. They were, for all their triumphs as trainers, still kids. And kids like new stuff.

They split up inside the store. Max found a pair of green and brown boots he really liked. The group was going to go to the snow capped mountains nearby soon, so Max figured that this would help him in the snow. Ash stumbled on a pair of worn looking jeans that looked really comfy and rather more daring then his usual outfit. Besides, his usual pairs got dirty quickly, and sometimes he didn't have access to somewhere to wash them up until later on. Misty found a purple t-shirt with a yinyang design that she really liked, besides, she was tired of wearing the same outfit over and over.. Brock found a Blue baseball cap, and May found a simple shirt with a picture of a pegasus on it. Brock just felt he needed something to spruce himself up, while May just liked to shop, period.

They took their purchases to the counter, where an odd looking older teen greeted them and rung up their purchases. He had spikey brown hair. His clothes were...Ash thought of the word 'traditional' and not in a polite way. Still, he was helpful and the kids realized they'd gotten a good discount from him. He smiled and shoed them out of the store. "Go on , my dear trainers. You'll need your strength for the adventures that await you"

Ash and the other left, thinking the whole buisness quite odd, but also quite pleased with their purchases, so they headed to the local Pokemon center for a well deserved rest. Ash, Brock and Max took one room, and Misty and May shared the other. the boys stripped down for bed, and Poochyena and Pikachu curled up with their trainers. All five of the trainers dreamed about a strange world, some strange mix of Johto and a computer program. What's more, all of them felt like they were part of the world, and they definetly didn't feel human for the course of the dream.

Max was, as usual, the first one awake. He scrambled out of bed and got into some clean clothes, trying on his boots, and deciding he wanted to wear them rather then his shoes. He had to break them in sometime. He pulled the cap on too, but it really was uncomfortably warm. It did have some effect though, Max's hair was several shades lighter, almost as though he'd bleached it, and softer to the touch. The boots and headgear made him feel great! He felt he could take on a Dragon Pokémon by himself --- maybe not win, but he felt like he could hold his own in battle against one, for a while! The energy coursing through him... he never felt so good.

He checked on the two older boys, but both of them were asleep, and he didn't really want to bother them, so he slipped outside, with Poochyena following, which was about when he discovered something. It had SNOWED last night! In all his young life, Max had seen snow maybe once or twice, and he was dying to play in it. Without even thinking, he dashed out the door, Poochyena running right next to him, and ran straight out into the snow, without even thinking about the fact that he was still wearing a t-shirt and shorts.

In all fairness to Max though, he didn't feel cold. In fact he felt as good as he could ever remember feeling. He was rolling in the snow with Poochy, and making snow angels. In fact he was having so much fun he hadn't noticed the whitish tone his skin was taking on. He would likely have stayed out all day, if May hadn't interuppted him, running outside in a sweater, and STILL shivering, asking him if he was trying to freeze to death. She dragged him inside and decided while he was cold to the touch and rather pale looking...he seemed healthy.

Max felt far more then healthy. He felt terrific! He'd never felt so good outdoors, and he practically begged May to let him go back out. She was reluctant, but none of the group was in a hurry to head into the snowfilled mountains, and they hadn't seen Max this excited in ages. May found him a pair of sweatpants and a jacket, though he insisted that he wasn't cold. Thus dressed for the weather, Max headed back out into the snow, and was soon goofing around with Poocheyna happily while the other shared some hot cocoa.

Max was having weird flashes as he tossed snowballs playfully at his Poochyena...he wasn't sure exactly what was going on, but he had images of throwing a whole flurry of them. He giggled to himself, it seems almost like a move a Pokemon would do. All he had to do was give it a name, and it'd happen, just like Ash and Misty did! He grinned and decided to give it a try."Blizzard Blaster!"

Something clicked as soon as he did that. The world seem to hold still and Max felt himself reach behind him and pull out a gun...something that looked like a rocket launcher, anyway, he braced it on his shoulder and snowballs started flying, rapidly and randomly all over the snowbanks. His aim wasn't great though and he didn't actually hit Poochyena with any of them. As Max set the gun back over his shoulder he grinned happily. The contristcting clothers were gone, frozen off, or maybe absorbed by the gun, and his glistening white skin was shining in the sun. "That was awesome!!!"

Poochyena pounced him, and Max giggled happily as he fell into a snow drift. The snow was cold and sharp on his face, but almost warm and tickly on the rest of him. Now that he didn't have those silly clothe May had made him wear...Max sat up sharply and looked over himself. The snow boots he'd picked up yesterday now covered most of his legs and...there weren't any other clothes there! His shirt was gone too! His whol body from neck down was just chubby white...something. He probed it, but his hands were made of the same strange material. It felt cold, almost soft, a lot like the snow he was laying in, actually.

Max felt a tickle in his nose as Poocheyna sat there, sniffing the odd creature who used to be his master but now smelled of something else. Maxed nose pressed out gently, into a little muzzle with a black nose and extra tingling across his cheeks as two reddish-brown stripes formed there. He felt his headband shift some and he ears perked out the top. He shook himself gently, then stood up and ran inside to the humans to show them what he'd become, letting another Blizzard Blaster loose as half the trainers inside tried to recognize this strange new 'pokemon'.

Before Ash could say a word, some of the snowballs hit him - one had managed to knock the hot chocolate out of his hand and cause it to fall to the floor. As Ash tried to wipe it off, he noticed that his body under where the snow hit seemed to be a bit blue-ish.

"What's happening to me?"

The snowballs started to seem to head directly for Ash and as some hit his shirt, he could hear his shirt ripping. His arms also started to bulk up.

"Ash! What's wrong?", Misty cried out.

Max stopped firing for a second as his move had ran out, but Ash's changes started to spread... his shoes burst and his feet now looked like furred claws. He had started to grow, as did his pants oddly enough. He was covered in light blue fur with darker blue stripes - the lightning bolt-shaped markings on his face had even become thicker blue markings. Ash shouted with a much deeper, more adult sounding voice, which turned into a canine-like howl as his face pulled out into a long muzzle, tipped with a black nose. His ears moved up to the top of his head... Ash immedately leaped over the table and beside the small 'Pokémon', and placed his paw on the small bear's head, and smiled at his remaining friends, who stared transfixed at the two standing before them - most other people had ran in panic, but for some reason, Pikachu, Misty, Brock and May couldn't move.

"Well Son... I'm sure you want a little brother, don't you?", The now large, adult werewolf asked the young snowbear.

Max grinned and nodded. But who?

"Well, how about Brock?", he whispered into Max's ear.

Max giggled and nodded. "Blizzard Blaster!" he called again as he pulled out his snowball launcher.

He took aim, slowly getting better at this and pelted Brock with several snowballs. Where they hit Brocks clothes, the clothes simply vanished, and in their place brow fur began to grow. The exception was the baseball cap, which Max handily knocked backwards with his last snow ball. The brown fur grew out and covered all of Brocks skin. What was left of his t-shirt consolidated into a blue leather bandolier loosely slung over his shoulder. Brock grimaced.

"What the!" Brock rubbed the fur and stared in shock as he realized he was changing too.

Brock's face pressed out into a stubby muzzle with a large black nose, making him growl softly. Two red stripes appeared in his fur just below each of his eyes Brock shunk as his feet grew out and became clawed. His legs became stubby and his fur softened as he became younger and younger.

His ear grew out into two large round fuzzy ears and Brock very much resembled a walking teddy bear. As his hands thickened up into paws, Brock screamed in horror, which only became greater as he realized his voice sounded like a boys! A little boy...one younger then Max!

Max ran over and hugged the Bearmon that Brock had become. As they embraced, Brock started to 'remember' hugging his big bro like this regularly. Brock and Max head back over to their dad, smiling and cuddling up with him.

"There, that wasn't so bad, was it son?" Asked Ash.

"No, it wasn't Daddy," Replied Brock, who then turned to Max, "Thank you, big brother."

"No problem," Max giggled. "I'm guessing you want mom back now, dad?"

"Yes."

"Alright!", Max said as he took aim at Misty, "Blizzard Blaster!"

As the snowballs from Max's blaster pummeled the water trainer, her skin started to get covered in yellow fur. When it struck her shirt, it devided and turned into two gloves which slipped on her hands - thankfully, her chest was now covered up by a fluffy white area of fur. Like Ash her body started to grow in size, and became very womanly, and curved. Her face started to pull out into a dainty muzzle. Her hands and feet both became paws as a long, fluffy tail grew out from her rear, destroying her shorts. To Ash, she was the perfect vision of loveliness. From the way she was looking at him, she apparently thought the same of him. With a stylish Ninja-like flip, Misty landed right beside Ash.

"Ash..."

"Misty, you don't need to say anything. I understand now," the Werewolf said as he took the vixen in his arms and hugged and kissed her.

Both Max and Brock recoiled at the lovey-stuff, Max not as much as Brock, but he really didn't like to see his 'parents' getting all intimate in front of him. The canines immedately broke apart.

"Oh, I'm sorry, boys. I forgot you were here for a moment."

"Th--That's okay, Mom. I know it's been a long time since you and dad have been able to do that."

Brock shuddered at this. If he was still his pretty much Adult human self, he'd be jealous. But he wasn't - in fact, he didn't ever remember being such.

"We still have company tho... Max, could you do something about her?", Misty asked, indicating May.

Brock giggled softly and whispered in Max's ear. No one caught much of it, except for the word 'toy'.

Max grinned and looked over at the girl who was once his big sister. She wasn't now, of course, and the idea planted by his Bearmon brother was just too good to pass up.

Not only that, but he'd enjoy this... Max Grinned as he pulled out his blaster once more, "Blizzard Blaster!"

The Snowballs hit May's chest, and she fell forward. As it continued to pummel her, her skin started to turn into orange hide. Her hair grew out long and White as an golden mask appeared on her face. Her pants ripped, but being that she was becoming a 'mon, there wasn't anything to be shown. A long tail came from behind her, and her hands and feet - or hooves as they had started to become, became covered in gold armor as well. Her shirt also became a gold plated chest armor. Her face and body started remolding until it was an equine shape, and large wings spread from her back.

When it looked like it was done, Max repeated his attack, "Blizzard Blaster!"

Everything on her, from her armor to her wings to her hide, started to become a soft, plushie like material... Although May could move easily a few seconds prior, she now found it impossible to move her limbs or wings. Her eyes glossed over as if they were plastic, and she started shrinking.

"What's--- what's happening?"

Soon, May was a small plush doll just large enough for Brock to carry around. Happily, Brock ran up to the plushie and picked it up, before giving it a hug.

"How embarressing...", May commented.

"P--Pikapi?"

"...Don't worry Pikachu. I was getting to you," Ash said in a calm voice, "Don't worry, you'll be pleased by the result, I'm sure."

Pikachu screamed in protest - which started out as large Pikas, but started changing into something more intellegable.

"Wh--What are you doing!? Stop!"

"But I want my uncle back!", Brock shouted.

"U-Uncle? What are you--?"

When Max's attack Ran out, the clothing remains from Misty And Ash that were laying around seemed to converge on Pikachu, turning into a type of armor that attached at various places. Also was a pair of jeans like that that Ash was wearing. Pikachu had on a visor. His hat was still in place, and he had medium length hair similiar to Ash's. Pikachu actually outmuscled Ash now - though not by TOO much, and was standing in a digigrade stance like he was. He had two brown Lightningbolt marks on his bare chest, and two crossed Lightning bolts on both of his red gauntlets.

"Wh--What... What AM I?"

"You are my brother, Pikachu."

"Ash... My name-- my name is Jean Luc."

"What--?", Ash was confused. This was news to him.

Pikachu looked up and grinned at his wolven brother, "What? Did you actually think we call each other by our species names?"

"I guess not," Ash grinned back.

"Something's missing...", Misty pondered.

"You mean BESIDES the other Pokémon in their balls?", Ash pointed out to his lifemate.

"Well, yes, other than them... Didn't we get someone else something?"

"Yeah! We forgot Poochyena!"

"Well then, son, it's up to you to change him. He was your Pokémon."

"I think he's still waiting outside for me. I wanna go out there alone for now, he might get scared if he sees the rest of you like this right now."

"Okay son, just be careful. Trainers may try to capture you."

"I don't think it'd work tho, but we shouldn't be hurting humans."

"Okay Dad. You stay here too, Brock."

"But I wanna come!", Brock Whined.

"You might scare Poochyena!"

"No I won't! I'm cute like you!"

Max rolled his eyes. He knows he's a cute--whatever he is, but he doesn't like admitting it. "Okay... but leave May in here. A doll that can talk to him might scare him."

"Her name's Peggy, May isn't around anymore!"

"Okay, leave PEGGY in here then."

"Okay," Brock said, "Now you be a good horsie, Peggy. I'll be right back."

"Oh brother," May muttered.

- - -

Poochyena waited paitently for his master outside. He didn't get why all those people ran outside, his master wouldn't hurt anyone.

Soon a semi-familiar figure was seen coming outside! It was the creature that used to be his master! He wagged his tail and ran up to him!

"Poochyena, let's play snowball fight some more!"

"Yena!"

Poochyena ran and playfully dodged the snowballs thrown by his master and the other wierd creature. He was having the time of his life, but he knew his master would do that new trick of his again soon, but he was confident that it wouldn't hit him - it didn't last time and that wasn't very long ago! His master didn't dissappoint him.

"Here we go, Poochyena! BLIZZARD BLASTER!"

Poochyena yelped in surprise as his Master's aim had improved alot. He tried to dodge, but somehow got hit every time. As it did, he felt... like he was getting bigger... It was his imagination-- wait... how did he know what 'imagination' is? He never knew it before... This is wierd...

"Aah!", He shouted. He was taken aback again. He could TALK like Max--- wait... wasn't he Master? How...? He didn't have time to ponder this as his body shaped up alot like a human's, Partial boots covering his back paws-- no... feet - but they were still paw-like... and wearing pants on his back l-- on his legs... He was still without a shirt, like his master, and he still had his two shades of grey... Contrary to popular belief, Canine Pokémon aren't colorblind like their non-Pokémon counterparts. His hands were still clawed paws, but they were covered with gloves. His face remained shaped pretty much the same, but it became much more expressive, able to show many more expressions than possible before. He also seemed to have hair now...

"So... Poochyena.. Do you have a name?"

"Y-Yeah... I'm Josh."

"Okay! Come on, we've got to go talk to my mom and dad!"

"Alright."

"Why do you sound scared? You're COOL! I wanna be like you and big brother when I grow up!"

"Uhh... Max, who's this?"

"That's my little brother, Brock."

"The squinty eyed guy?"

"Yup," Max conceeded, "Isn't it obvious, tho? He's still like that."

"Yeah, but... wasn't he older?"

"I was not! I was ALWAYS Max's little brother!", Brock protested.

Max whispered into his best friend's ear, "He doesn't seem to remember anything. Just play along, for his sake."

"Okay Mom, Dad! We're done!"

"That's good, Son... Now... We've got some unfinished business...", Ash said, as he hoisted his backsack over his shoulder, which seemed to contain many Pokéballs.

"You didn't STEAL those, did you?", Max asked.

"Of course not. They're your mom and my Pokémon from over the years. Apparently, I was able to short out part of the Pokédex so it'd send over all my Pokémon but I left my Charizard behind. He's got... other things to deal with. I didn't want to bother him."

Brock picked up May, "Where are we going, Mama?"

Misty turned to Brock, she was carrying a sleeping Azurill in her arms, "We're going to go talk to someone, son. He'll be able to provide some answers and get the rest of our family back. And please be a little quieter. You don't want to wake up your sister, do you?"

"Oops. Sorry."

- - -

The small family unit walked to the same shop that they had entered the day prior, the man was still there in the shop.

"I see you appreciate what I've done."

"Yes sir... But, I have a few questions... What ARE we... and why did you do this?", Ash asked.

"You are Digimon. You, Ash, are a Weregarurumon. Your wife is a Renamon. Max is a Kumamon, while Brock is a Bearmon. May is a plushie of a Pegasusmon - who will keep Brock out of trouble until he matures, then she'll become a living Digimon. Jean Luc and Josh are special, new digimon. Jean Luc is a Pikamon, and Josh is a Yenamon. I did this because there is a Digital World tied to your real world. However, it is in peril and needs some heroic digimon. I had gotten permission from your legendaries to do this to you - you would be able to be brought back to help them when they needed it, but you would be relatively safer in the Digital World, where you would not die of old age, although you may have to fight to survive, you have some of the most powerful souls. Before you ask, my name... is Gennai."

"Alright... Gennai...", Ash smiled and extended a claw, "Can you help us find things to change the rest of our 'family' as well?"

Gennai smiled at the young former trainer, who seemed to take everything much better than he had thought, "Alright. Let's get started then."


	12. Dragonheart of the Cards

Dragonheart of the Cards  
Disclaimer: Don't own don't sue.  
Author Notes: Done by Tazkol the Master of Emeralds. Edited by Ri2.

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_Egypt, the Valley of Kings, 3000 years ago_

For centuries, the rulers of Egypt had been entombed in the great Valley of the Kings, sealed in great stone sarcophagi and surrounded with treasures and enchantments to sustain them in the afterworld. Inside one such tomb, the latest king of Egypt, the pharaoh Atem, was now buried, along with his most treasured positions…including a mysterious golden puzzle containing untold power, one of a set of seven that had been scattered to the far corners of the earth.

As was custom, statues and carvings had been placed in the tomb to invoke the power of mighty guardian spirits to protect the pharaoh's resting place from greedy tomb robbers, and ensure his journey to the next world would be a pleasant one. One of those spirits, a being with the form of a lovely young girl wearing blue armor and wielding a jeweled magical staff, was at that moment flying through the tomb on an errand, avoiding the many traps and tricks with ease. In her arms she cradled six stone tablets, each inscribed with the image of a different monstrous creature. With the six stones in hand, she entered a large chamber with the symbol of a circle with a line through it and a smaller circle in the middle of the line engraved on the floor. Standing in the room was a man wearing similar armor to the girl's, except his was purple in color and his staff was much longer.

"Did you find them?" the man, also a guardian spirit and the girl's superior, asked as the female magician entered the room.

"Yes," the girl said, handing him the six small tablets, "Why did you ask for these specifically, master?" the girl asked, looking confused.

"Because these creatures are not from our world," the man said as he inspected the figures inscribed on the tablets.

The girl blinked, utterly perplexed. "What do you mean?"

"You, I, and the other monsters summoned by the pharaoh and his priests are from the Shadow Realm, the pharaoh and his people are from this realm," the man explained. "Two thousand years ago, when the fight against the King of Atlantis was at its bleakest moment, the pharaoh's great ancestor prayed to the gods for more powerful kas to help protect his people, As he prayed a small creature appeared to him, assuring him that help would be sent. The five creatures depicted on these tablets were sent here as that help. Now that we are at peace, they must be prepared to be sent home." As he regaled his disciple with this tale, he fit each tablet into a slot on the wall, the interiors covered with complex hieroglyphic incantations. When all six were in place, he reached into the folds of his armor and pulled out a solid gold ball with the Eye of Horus inscribed on it, marking it as a powerful mystical artifact. He placed the ball into a large round hole in the wall and watched as it disappeared in a beam of brilliant white light to another plane altogether. "Come," he said, turning away. "Our work is done." And with that the two beings vanished into thin air.

_Poke-earth, present day_

"Remind me again why he had to come along?" Misty, an attractive red-haired Pokemon trainer, asked, pointing to Gary, a spiky-haired rather arrogant brunette. A group of trainers made up of Ash, Misty, Brock, Pikachu, Max, May, and Gary were headed to the ruins of Pokemopolis, the fabled city of ancient Pokemon. Ash, Misty, and Brock had already been there once before and were not too thrilled with the idea of running into the giant Pokemon they had met on their previous trip.

"Because, none of you know how to navigate," Gary said with his nose stuck up in the air. Under normal circumstances his faithful cheerleaders would've kicked in by now, but Misty had promised Gary that if there was a cheerleader within 10 miles of the group, she would use her mallet to make Gary resemble a deflated Jigglypuff, and the vain young man was inclined to believe she would. Understandably frightened, he had told his cheerleaders to take a break from him, much to the relief of everyone except for the girl-crazy Brock.

"And that's why we've been lost only 578 times more than any other time," bespectacled young Max remarked. He had decided right after meeting Gary that it was funnier to make fun of the spiky-haired teenager then torment Ash's mistakes. (But only a little more.)

"So Ash, why did we have to head to Pokemopolis so soon anyway?" the tall, dark-skinned slit-eyed Brock asked, seeing as Ash had woken the group and convinced them to leave in the middle of the night. Misty had been so mad she had tried to beat him to a pulp, fortunately Ash had reinforced his cap with a steel lining beforehand as a safety precaution. He would need to make sure to use a more durable substance in the future.

"Three reasons," Ash said. "1. Professor Oak wanted me to take some items there for him, 2. Dr. Eve phoned me and asked me to come down saying she found something really unusual, and number 3. I had a dream." The group (except Pikachu) sweatdropped.

"Pikachuuuu," Ash's best friend Pikachu, a yellow electric mouse, said. He had taken part in the dream, oddly enough.

"It was a dream from Lugia," Ash explained. "He said that the time of the Chosen One was drawing near and I had to head to Pokemopolis as soon as possible." Misty nodded in understanding, Lugia wouldn't make Ash leave in the middle of night for nothing. Of course, this meant she'd have to pound his head in instead of Ash's for waking her up at such an ungodly hour.

The group had been traveling for 2 weeks. Max had been exaggerating (although not by much) on how many times they had gotten lost before Gary finally gave up and let Max use his Pokenav. They where now headed in the right direction. Evidence that they were close was everywhere, there were symbols carved or painted on stones, and remnants of what could be thought of as ancient buildings were lying around all over the place. Something caught Ash's notice, it was a symbol in the shape of an eye, with Pokemon that Ash had never seen before painted all around it. He flipped open his Pokedex and activated the scan function. The device crackled with static before an unusual voice spoke through it, it was deep and ancient and most definitely _not_ the minicomputer's usual electronic voice.

"The dragons of light shall again rule the sky, the dragon of darkness shall again fly high, the lesser shall serve, the smaller shall bow to the will of the light dragons heir, thus is the prophesy of the Chosen One's purpose." The voice immediately died away. Ash blinked and looked down at the crackling Pokedex in confusion. It was then that the group, which had gone on ahead while he was distracted, came back and found him.

"Hey Ash! Why'd you stop, we thought we lost you," Misty said, looking annoyed.

"Huh? Oh! It's nothing, just thinking about what it would be like to own a Pokemon like that," Ash said, pointing to the image of a dragon with what looked like armor plates around its body with various brighter lines radiating from it for some reason. Five sapphires were set into the dragon's armor.

Misty rolled her eyes. "Figures, your head's always stuck in Pokemon. Still, I think I'd like to own one like that," Misty said, pointing to a image depicting a dragon similar to Ash's, only without the armor plating and not as much light shining from it.

"Figures, Ashy-boy and his girlfriend like the shiny Pokemon," Gary remarked with an arrogant snort.

"SHE/I IS/AM NOT MY/HIS GIRLFRIEND!!" Ash and Misty yelled in unison, causing the others to snicker.

"Personally, I'd rather take that one," Gary said, pointing to a picture of a dragon shrouded in black with tendrils symbolizing darkness swirling around it. The only part that wasn't black were five rubies surrounded by gold set in its armor. "Now that looks powerful!"

"Oh! Look at that one, it's so cute!" The brown-haired May squealed, pointing to a picture of a tiny dragon with no legs or hands, only a set of wings. It had a goofy smile covering its face and was hovering near a small dragon with big eyes and two small horns.

Max rolled his eyes. "Yeah, cute, that's all that matters to you, huh May…" He had to admit, though, that there was something about the horned dragon the disgustingly cute one was close to.

"Hmm," said Brock, frowning as he looked at the image of a dragon kneeling at the feet of the one Ash had pointed to with a servile and obedient expression on its face. _Why the heck does a clear loser like that catch my eye?_ He wondered.

"Well, we better get going," Ash said as Pikachu jumped on his shoulder. The little rodent Pokemon had a worried look on its face, but it tried not to show it. _If only they knew what those inscriptions carved at the bottom said! _he thought anxiously as they left. _I mean, I don't know what they mean either, but…I've got a weird feeling about all this... _He looked back to see the eye symbol glow, it almost seemed to blink as Pikachu shuddered and turned away.

Dr. Eve was waiting for them when they made it to the main dig site. "Ah! Ash! Good, you're here!" Dr. Eve said "You won't believe what we found!" After all the preliminary greetings were out of the way and Misty and Max dragged Brock away by both ears to keep him from hitting on the scientist, Dr. Eve took them past the many archaeologists hard at work excavating and uncovering various artifacts and statuary from the ruins to the center of the dig site, a small cave that had been expanded by digging Pokemon, with modern lighting strung up on the ceiling to let people see where they were going. The lights also helped to illuminate the magnificent carvings on the walls, and the altar in the very back of the cave. Atop this altar sat what looked like a Pokeball made completely out of solid gold, with an eye symbol inscribed on it in place of a release button.

"This is it," Dr. Eve said.

"Just looks like a fancy Pokeball to me," Gary snorted, trying to pretend he wasn't interested.

"It's all shiny…" said an awed May. Max rolled his eyes; though he had to admit it was rather surprising that this sphere could be so bright after being stuck in this cave for centuries.

"Not nearly as radiant as your beauty!" Brock said to Dr. Eve, resulting in Misty pounding him and dragging him away.

"I hope there isn't another giant tattooed monster in there…" Misty murmured.

"What is it?" Ash asked the scientist.

"To be honest, we don't know. We found some ancient inscriptions that weren't in the normal Pokemopolitan language, we later figured out that they where a whole other language entirely!" Dr. Eve explained. "We haven't been able to translate it though," she said, showing them a wall with many strange markings on it.

For some reason, Ash found he could read it as clear as day. "Long ago, the Pharaoh Atun prayed that the gods send their most powerful beings to aid him against the Atlantean invaders. When the servants of the gods were not enough, he prayed to the realm beyond the realm of the dead. In turn the beings of this distant world sent powerful creatures to aid Egypt. Many hundreds of years later, the Pharaoh Atem sealed the Shadow Realm and its creatures using the seven golden Millennium Items, but he made a key to unlock the door. The key was sent to the realm beyond the Shadow Realm so that a Chosen One could come and unlock the door. Then the beings of great power will be returned to the realm beyond the Shadow Realm, the chosen vessels shall cause them to return. The one who is of Ash shall unlock the door; the one shrouded in mist shall fly by his side. Their child shall be treated to the Max, come what May, the one who is stronger shall serve them of Brock, and the hated rival shall be engulfed in shadow. The key is the Millennium Ball; the door appears at the latest and earliest hour." Ash blinked and shook his head, nearly out of breath from the long recitation. Everyone stared at Ash, looking as stunned as he was that he had been able to say all that.

"How did you read that Ash?" asked an incredulous Dr. Eve.

Ash shrugged. "Search me."

"Am I the only one who finds it disturbing that all of our names were mentioned in that weird prophecy thing Ash just said?!" asked an anxious Misty.

"No, I'm disturbed too," said Max.

"Bah, pure gibberish," scoffed Gary carelessly. "He was just making it all up."

"I was not!" Ash snapped. "I think…"

"That was weird…" murmured May.

"What did he mean by 'serve'?" wondered Brock. "And all that other weird stuff?"

"No clue," Ash said. "And I was the guy saying it!" Pikachu growled and zapped him. "Ow! Hey, what was that for?!"

"Pipi Pikapika pipika chapi Pikachu!" Pikachu snarled. -For not saying anything about me in that prophecy, you jerk!-

Dr. Eve frowned. "Hmm…I wonder if there's a connection with…" She gestured to the group. "Follow me, please. I want to show you why I specifically asked for you six to come." She led them over to one of the chamber walls and stood aside, pointing at the figures displayed there. "Do they look familiar to you at all?"

The six kids were stunned. Brock took one look at what was on the wall and fainted from shock. "That's….no way! That's impossible!" May screamed.

"There's no way…this just can't be!" stammered Max.

"This has got to be a hoax!" a terrified Gary proclaimed.

As Pikachu muttered nervously and Ash shook his head in denial, Misty whirled on Dr. Eve. "What the Hell are pictures of the six of us doing in a cave thousands of years old?!"

Dr. Eve raised an eyebrow. "I was hoping _you_ could tell _me._"

_Later that night_

After staying up late trying to figure out what the hell was going on and getting nowhere, everyone had reluctantly gone to bed. However, not very long after falling asleep, Misty was woken from her much-needed rest by the sound of rustling. She groaned and turned over in her sleeping bag to see Ash leaving the tent they were sleeping in and walking towards the cave in the middle of the dig site. She frowned and woke up Pikachu, whom Ash had inconsiderately left behind.

"Pikachu, where's Ash going?" Misty asked

"Pikapi?" the small groggy electric mouse asked in confusion.

Misty sighed, realizing she wasn't going to get any sleep that night. Again. "We'd better follow him. Can you wake everyone up?" Five seconds later the rest of the group experienced the rudest awakening of there life thanks to Pikachu's 'alarm clock'. After explaining what was going on to everyone, they all (reluctantly) left and caught up with Ash, where they verbally abused him, Misty pounded him, and Pikachu zapped him for forcing them all to get up so early again. It was then they realized that they weren't alone, and several very august personages were surrounding the mouth of the cave, staring at them.

Floating near Ash were Mew, Celebi, and Mewtwo, who drifted a little further away so that none of them might be hit by Misty's mallet, which looked very painful. Perched on the mountainside above them were Lugia, Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres and Ho-oh. Beneath Ho-oh sat the three legendary dog Pokemon Entei, Suicune, and Raikou. Misty heard something behind her, the dumbstruck group turned as one to come face to face with Rayquaza, the large dragon Pokemon, who usually spent most of his time in the upper atmosphere. The large red armored Groudon stomped over, wearing a very comfortable pair of pants, while Kyogre was somehow floating above the ground next to them on a condensed platform of cloud matter. A large vaguely humanoid Pokemon that seemed to be made of solid rock with huge pincers made from stone coming out of its head emerged from the ground, followed soon after by a similar Pokemon made entirely of ice with three icy protrusions sticking out just behind the arms and another Pokemon made entirely of steel with long metal claws coming out of it's hands. The cute red and white dragon Latias flew in right next to Rayquaza and winked at Ash, who blinked dumbly. Pikachu stared in awe, knowing that he must have been one of the only Pokemon in hundreds of years to be in the presence of nearly all of his kind's greatest leaders while at peace at one time.

"So…this is why you got up…" Misty said weakly.

"Yeah, Mewtwo sent me a telepathic message saying they wanted to see me for some reason," Ash confessed. "Didn't want to wake you guys up, so I went on my own."

"You woke us up anyway," she said flatly. "You're not very good at being stealthy." He frowned at her.

"Um…well. These are a few faces we haven't seen in a while," Brock said after a moment, at a loss for something to say.

"Wow! This is so cool!" Max said enthusiastically.

"Um…yeah…sure…cool…" May whimpered timidly, hiding behind Brock.

"Awesome, nearly all the legendary Pokemon are here!" Gary said gleefully, taking out some Pokeballs. "I'm gonna catch 'em!" As Ash wondered why Gary had said his name, the legendaries simultaneously blasted Gary with bolts of electricity, streams of flame, bursts of ice, waves of psychic force, energy balls, lasers, and rocks. "Maybe not," he gasped, now a scorched and trembling heap twisted in agony on the ground. Nobody really cared.

Mew drifted back over and started psychically broadcasting a telepathic message to everyone there. _"Brothers! Sisters! Chosen One! Chosen One's mate and companions! Chosen One's protector!"_ Mew bowed to Pikachu as she said this, and the little rodent Pokemon nearly fainted. _"Oh, and…some other guy."_

"Hey!" Gary yelled weakly from the ground. Nobody paid attention to him.

Mew continued. _"Many of you where not here when Rayquaza's father, brother, and the other great dragons where sent to help against a threat greater than most we have ever faced. Most of you know the legend of the Orichalkos stone that caused many Pokemon to walk an evil path."_

- I didn't- said Groudon. Nobody paid attention to him.

_"Most of you all know that we sent it away, across the borders of dimensions so we would never worry about it again. But sadly, it ended up in evil hands, and we received a call for help from that other world. The great dragons volunteered to leave our dimension and help the poor beings that were threatened by this evil. It has long been our prophecy that a Chosen One would arise, and bring the great dragons back to our world. The first sign by which he would be known was that he would bring light to the shadows."_ Mew projected an image of Sabrina and Mewtwo into the air as she said this. Mewtwo coughed uncomfortably. His second sign, he would fulfill Lugia's prophecy and aid the guardian of the sea in restoring the balance of fire, ice, and lighting. Mew nodded to the legendary birds and their reluctant guardian caretaker. His third sign, that he would keep an idiot child from destroying reality with powers beyond her comprehension. An image of Molly picking her nose appeared, then faded. _"And there were a ton of other signs too, like 'healing time' AKA Celebi, stopping the collision of land and sea, otherwise known as stopping Groudon and Kyogre's stupid feud-"_

-Hey, it is not stupid!- Groudon said indignantly.

-Yeah, he still needs to pay me back for that sled he broke!- Kyogre agreed.

Everyone sweatdropped. Mew continued. _"Yeah, and the signs basically go on in that vein…oh, and there was this really neat one where he saved yours truly and did some weird thing with auras…but basically all of them add up to Ash being the Chosen One."_

"You?" Gary, still on the ground, said with a derisive snort. "Yeah right." Misty stepped on him and Pikachu zapped him. "Ow."

"Wow, you've sure done a lot, Ash," Max commented.

"Yeah, I guess I have," Ash admitted.

"And nobody ever recognizes my accomplishments…figures," Brock grumbled.

"What accomplishments?" May asked. He scowled at her.

_"Anyway, the Chosen One has risen and the hour is almost upon us when we can welcome back the great dragons."_ As Mew said this, a loud tolling sound could be heard, as though a grandfather clock somewhere were ringing. Everyone looked around in confusion, wondering where that noise had come from, and Registeel hoped nobody noticed the smell emanating from him. He knew he shouldn't have eaten that copper earlier, it always gave him gas.

_"So, Chosen One, go forth and fulfill your destiny!"_ Mew told Ash.

"Huh?" Ash asked, having no idea what the heck Mew was talking about.

Everybody, even the legendaries, facefaulted. _"Just go in the damn cave and put the Millennium Ball where it belongs already,"_ Mewtwo snarled.

"Oh, okay." Walking into the cave, with his uncertain friends following him (Gary dragging himself feebly across the ground), Ash reached the altar and removed the solid gold Pokeball from where it was resting. He stared at it for a moment, frowned, then took long steps and walked towards one of the wall of hieroglyphics. When he approached it, a ghostly image appeared before his eyes. It looked like a large stone slab resembling a sarcophagus with several gold items fitted into various niches on its surface. With everyone's eyes on him, Ash slowly placed the golden ball into a hidden spot on the waist of the sarcophagus. As soon as the orb was in place, a brilliant light shone from a golden pyramid made up of many smaller pieces hanging around the neck of the figure depicted on the stone slab. The light shone brighter until it engulfed Ash and Misty. Its radiance seemed to dim as it shone on Max, and it barely glowed on Brock and May at all. As for Gary, to the naked eye it would seem that he was in an absence of light.

Feeling woozy and ignoring several loud cries and electric jolts from Pikachu, the group staggered back out of the cave and into the enclosure formed by the many gathered legendaries. Pikachu started and jumped off of Ash as he felt his human friend's flesh shift and change beneath his paws. Landing on the ground, he turned and watched in horror as Ash started growing. His clothing tore off as his skin grew harder then steel and began to shine like the sun, splitting into armor-like segments. Mirrored pearls appeared on his elbows, knees, and ankles as his toes merged together into huge claws. His knees bent a little outward as his legs lengthened. His tailbone lengthened and grew into a long whip-like tail. His arms grew as his fingers merged together and grew outward to form large metal wings. His hair disappeared into his skull as his head became larger and diamond shaped, two axe-like blades growing from the sides of his face as his mouth and nose pulled out into a snout filled with rows of deadly sharp teeth. His eyes where quickly covered by his armor-like skin, all that was left for him to see out of was another mirrored pearl that appeared where his snout met his face, luckily he could see out of it just fine. His neck extending to raise his head high above his body, Ash let out a mighty roar as his transformation was completed, blinding light radiating from him and making the night seem like day. The legendaries roared along with him. Pikachu's jaw dropped, and he almost passed out. Dr. Eve, woken up by the light and commotion, groggily walked out of her tent, stared at what was going on in the dig site, and went back inside, convinced she was hallucinating.

Ash looked back to see Misty undergoing a similar change. Misty's neck grew incredibly long as her head became narrower. Her hair was covered by a long white shield that developed at the top of her skull and shingled a bit down her neck. Her eyes moved to just under the shield and became a deep ocean blue. Though not quite hidden under it, her nose rounded under her shield, creating a snout. Her ears moved down to attach to the sides of her mouth as they shaped themselves into fin-like spikes. Her teeth sharpened and more rows of teeth grew in. Her shoulder blades sunk down on her body as two fingers on each hand merged, the resulting three tipped with long pearly white razor-sharp claws. Huge white wings grew out of her back. Her tailbone lengthened into a long whip-like tail, though not quite as long as Ash's. Her knees bent forward as two of her toes on either foot merged together and one moved to the back of her heel, all tipped with the same wicked claws as her hands. Her entire body was encased in polished white armor-like scales. Misty let out a vicious roar as her transformation completed, radiating with glorious light.

Both Ash and Misty heard a squeak as they turned their heads in Max's direction. Max's body was quickly covered in orange scales except for his chest, which was covered by beige scales. Unlike Misty or Ash who had both grown to a considerable size, Max began to shrink. He shrunk tell he was only about the size of a two-year old; his mental faculties shrinking along with him. His eyes grew to dominate his face, becoming two giant blue orbs. His nose and mouth grew out into a short snout. Two small wings sprouted from his back, each tipped with a tiny horn. His hair disappeared into his scalp as two small horns grew out the back of his head. His tailbone lengthened into a small tail as a line of small spikes grew from the tip of his tail to the back of his neck just under the horns. One finger on each hand disappeared as oversized claws grew out of each finger and his thumb. His heel merged into the front of his foot as his toes merged and became claws to make giant three clawed feet. Most of his teeth fell out until just four front teeth remained, each was razor sharp.

_"Mama! Papa! We're home! Yay!"_ Max the dragon cheered before running up to Ash and Misty. They looked at each other uneasily, they knew this was wrong and yet somehow it felt right. The trio looked over at their three other companions as they went through their own changes.

May, much to her alarm, began to shrink rapidly, soon she was smaller then Max. Her legs merged together then shrank, her feet disappearing completely and leaving a small tail. Her shoulders moved to the back of her body as her arms grew longer and thinner, her fingers stretching out and merging to make wings on her back. Her face pulled out into a small snout with a tiny red nose. Her eyes lost all definition as they turned a dull blue. Her body covered itself in yellow scales, except her very front which was covered in light beige. The tiny dragon began to fly around Max. May's mind clouded, all her terror and fright and panic and memories and sentience and intelligence fading away. When the haze cleared, all that was left of her was a mindless wyrm that was no more then a stupid pet for her master, the dragon that was no longer her brother. May squeaked happily as she floated around Max, her imbecilic mind unable to conceive of any greater joy than being around him.

A mask of thick green scales developed over the top of Brocks head, then spread down the back of his neck and most of his back. Scales also developed around his shoulders, ribs, forearms and the front of his knees. Two fingers on each hand merged before becoming huge bone claws. His stomach shrank along with most of his torso, leaving only a small section between his ribs and his legs. His knees bent forward, forcing him into a squatting position. His face pulled out, making a long vicious-looking snout filled with sharp teeth. His tailbone extended into a long tail, just like all the others. His thighs shrank so that his legs seemed to connect to his body at his tail. His eyes became undefined and red. Wherever skin could be seen under the green scales was covered in brown scales. His feet became huge three-toed claws. Brock looked around before presenting himself before Ash and Misty and bowing low to the floor without thinking. When he did think, he wondered why he had just done that and why it felt like he should keep doing it.

Everyone's faces turned to Gary. The young man's eyes were wide with pain and denial. "No. No, I won't do it! I won't become like you, this…this is all just a dream! It can't be real, it can't be real, it…AAAAGGGGHHH!" Gary's back erupted with a series of jagged blade-like spikes that continued all the way down his spine. When they reached the end of his spine, his tailbone began to elongate and more spikes grew out of it to form a sharp spiky tail. A long black spike grew out of his forehead with a red ruby lined with gold at its base. Gary's eyes became a glowing red as his mouth pushed out into a beak-like snout. Two wicked-looking horns grew out the side of his face. His teeth sharpened as rows of more teeth grew in and smoke began to drift out of his mouth with his every exhalation. His neck extended out ward, removing his head from his body. His shoulders connected to his ribs before stretching way out backward to create a 'V' ending in two huge sharp spikes. Two small rubies developed under each side and more gold markings appeared across his chest. His arms grew thick as black plate-like scales covered them. His hands began to stretch out and grow, a ruby appearing on the joint of his thumb as it grew into a longer blade-like appendage. His index and middle fingers became similar minus the ruby. Gary's two other fingers disappeared, leaving him with giant wings of darkness. His legs bent forward as two giant rubies grew out of his knees. Golden lines snaked around the ruby and down his legs. Two of his toes disappeared as his feet became clawed. Finally, his body turned a deep black as it was now covered in deep black plate scales. Gary's post-transformation roar was less proud and more sinister. Pikachu thought Ash looked cooler.

_"It is done!"_ Mew said triumphantly.

-Yeah, we can see that- Moltres said sardonically.

Latias flushed. -They're all…very lovely.-

_"At last…they're home…"_ murmured Rayquaza.

Groudon yawned. -I'm bored. What else is on? Rayquaza smacked him with his tail. -Ow! What'd I do?!-

_"What has happened to us?!"_ Ash projected his thoughts, startling himself and his friends when they realized he had spoken telepathically.

_"Yes, why are we like this?!"_ Misty demanded.

_"And why do I feel like my existence has no meaning if I cannot serve my master…ugh! What the hell?!"_ Brock cried.

_"Yeah, what happened?! Though I have to admit, I look pretty damn fine."_, Gary admitted.

_"Father! Mother! I believe can answer your questions!"_ Rayquaza started, flying up to Ash.

_"What did you call me?"_ Ash projected, very confused.

_"Yeah, and did he just call me his mom?!"_ asked an incredulous Misty.

_"I called you father and mother, for now you share the body and memories of my parents. Long ago they left along with their closest servant, the family pet, and the baby. They could not return on their own, so you were selected to share existence with them,"_ Rayquaza said as he floated over to Max and tickled him gently with his claws. Max giggled with delight, and May bit her own tail for no reason.

_"Uh, wait, don't we get a choice here?!"_ asked an alarmed Gary.

_"No, not really,"_ said Mewtwo, with a smirk.

_And I get left out of all this…gee, thanks,_ Pikachu thought bitterly.

_"Ash, you and your family are now some of the most ancient and powerful legendaries on this world,"_ said Mew. _"Only Celebi, Ho-oh, Lugia, the three Regi's, Rayquaza and myself were around to see you leave. You, Ash, are Pearlous the shining one, legendary of all that is powerful and beautiful."_

_"K,"_ said Ash.

Mew continued. _"Misty has become Pearline, the blue eyed white dragon legendary of beauty in its highest sense."_

_"Oh, neat. I think…"_ Misty said, somewhat puzzled. _"I thought Ash was beauty."_

_"It's a joint thing, dear. Sort of. Max has become your son Vergon the baby dragon, legendary of youth and vigor."_

_"Does that mean I stay young forever?"_ Max asked eagerly.

_"No, dear."_

_"Awwww, man!"_ Max whined.

_"Gary has become Rubulous the dragon of darkness, legendary of all that is powerful and terrible."_

_"Rar,"_ said Gary dully.

_"May and Brock are one of a kind Pokemon. Brock is Sinser the servant dragon and May is Marievious the pet dragon,"_ Mew finished.

_"Uh, wait, **servant** dragon?!"_ said an alarmed Brock. _"I don't want to be a servant! Can't I be something else?"_

_"We could turn you into the same kind of dragon May is, but that's about it,"_ said Celebi.

Brock glanced at May, who was currently bashing her head repeatedly against a rock while Max watched eagerly. _"Ah, no, that won't be necessary, he said quickly. I'll just, uh, get used to serving. Um, I'm not a eunuch, am I?"_ Nobody answered him.

_"Now I understand that you and Misty have raised three different Pokemon children, and for a time you yourself where the recognized father figure of a Larvitar"_ Mew projected to Ash and Misty. _"You will be able to change Azurill, Phanphy, and Togetic into dragons so that they may join your new family. You may also present the option to Larvitar and his mother if you wish. You'll have till sundown three days from now, after that we cannot allow you to change anyone else. Gary we will allow you to change one person later on to serve as a mate for you,"_ Mew instructed.

_"I'm so thrilled,"_ Gary said sarcastically. _"The chance to rob someone else of their humanity. Wonder who I'll pick?"_

_"Uh, hey, can I get that option too? Or take Gary's if he doesn't use his?"_ Brock asked hopefully.

"No," the legendaries all said, causing Brock to sag in despair.

"There are some creatures in this world that are not meant to breed," Groudon said, belching loudly and scratching his crotch while picking his nose.

"I think I know another one…" Kyogre muttered. Rayquaza could not help but agree.

_"And so it is done, Lugia broadcasted to everyone. All hail Pearlous and Pearline, the ancient dragons! (Other than Rayquaza, of course.)"_ With that, Lugia bowed to Ash and then to Misty. All the other legendaries, save for Mew, Celebi, and Mewtwo, took his cue to bow as well.

_"Hey, why isn't anyone bowing to me?"_ complained Gary. _"I'm an ancient dragon too!"_

_"Yes, but nobody likes you,"_ said Rayquaza flatly. _"You were a big jerk in the old days and you're still a big jerk now, we would have left you on the other side if you weren't part of the package deal."_ Gary snarled at him.

Pikachu sighed, his ears drooping. _Wonderful. Ash and everyone else have become gods. And, typically, they forgot lil' old me. Not like I matter anymore, no, I just had to _get_ Ash and the others here, keep them long enough for them to fulfill their destinies, apparently. And now that I did that, they clearly don't need a tiny insignificant rat like me anymore. Guess I'll go off and learn how to be wild again…or beat up Team Rocket…or kill myself. Or something. I dunno. Not like I have anything to live for anymore._

As he was thinking these morbid thoughts and turning to walk off into oblivion, Mew glanced down at Pikachu. _"Soon we must go, but in gratitude for your years of faithfully guarding the Chosen One, we shall grant you this final gift."_ As Pikachu's ears perked up at this, Mew fired a ball of glowing energy straight at him. At the same time, Zapdos and Raikou fired off their most powerful electric attacks at the small rodent Pokemon, so all three energy blasts hit him simultaneously and caused him to get knocked back from the sheer force they were pumping into him. Instead of being in great pain, Pikachu felt his power beginning to grow exponentially. Slowly, the electric Pokemon began to grow until he was standing eye to eye with Mewtwo. His arms lengthened as his hands became more humanoid, his legs doing the same. Two small slits formed on his back and electricity shot out from them, forming wings of pure energy. His cheeks went from cherry red to blood red. His tail thinned out and lost its stiffness, looking very much like a Raichu tail, except that his one had no barb on the end. Instead he had a small yellow gem. Pikachu and the others looked his new form in wonder, he felt unbelievably powerful now.

_"Wow"_ whispered Misty.

_"Awesome!"_ cheered Max.

_"Nice going, Pikachu!"_ Ash congratulated his friend.

_"Oh great, **another** new guy,"_ grumbled Articuno. _"Didn't we used to have higher standards for who we let into the club?"_ Lugia whacked her. _"Ow!"_

_"Yay, Jirachi and I aren't the youngest anymore!"_ Latias cheered.

_"Wh-what did they do to me?"_ Pikachu broadcasted telepathically, startled to discover he was now psychic.

_"We have remade you, you have joined our ranks as a legendary,"_ Mew explained. _"You share the power of Raikou and Zapdos as well as some of my own abilities. The weather is attuned to your mood, just as it is with Zapdos, your anger can cause great thunder storms, so you must be careful with your temper. Since you were never fond of the idea of evolving, you shall be patron legendary of Pokemon who refuse to evolve. Congratulations Pikachu, you have transcended, you are now Voltjin."_

_"Ah,"_ said the newly christened god. Thanks. Um…not to be rude or anything, but…patron of unevolved Pokemon?

_"We're a little short on positions at the moment,"_ Celebi said apologetically. _"If something better opens up, we'll let you know."_

-Can you let me know too?- Brock asked hopefully.

"NO!" everyone yelled at him.

_"And now we must go,"_ Mew said, For the sun will rise shortly. All looked to the horizon to see the first rays of golden sunlight appearing. _"Voltjin, I am afraid you must come with us for the time being to be 'broken in'. Raikou and Zapdos will handle your training."_

Raikou and Zapdos blinked. _"We will?"_ asked an alarmed Zapdos.

_"But it's my day off!"_ Raikou whined.

_"Tough luck,_" Mewtwo said with a smirk.

_"But I want to stay with Ash!"_ protested Voltjin.

_"Pikachu, we'll catch up later,"_ Ash promised his oldest friend. _"If you have to go, that's fine with us. We probably have something to be doing too…I think."_

_"That's right, you do. Rayquaza, I trust you can look after them,"_ Mew said, indicating the new dragons.

The dragon nodded. _"Yes, it will be fine,"_ Rayquaza projected.

_"Ash, I guess I'll be seeing you later, okay?"_ Voltjin said as Raikou and Zapdos reluctantly came down to him.

_"I'm looking forward to it!"_ Ash said.

_"Goodbye, Uncle Voltjin!"_ Max yelled as the other legendaries all left for their own domains.

_"Take me with you!"_ begged Brock.

_"Yeah, me too, I don't wanna be stuck with these losers!"_ Gary shouted after them. Misty whacked him with her tail. _"Ow!"_

_A little later…_

As the sun rose higher in the sky, the green dragon Pokemon led his family, their servants, and his father's greatest rival (since they couldn't trust him not to get into trouble if they left him behind) back to the home they had shared before they left, the Sky Pillar. (Well, the _family's_ home, Gary had lived in a rather dank and smelly cave.) The group had brought with them a bundle made up of all the cloths and belongings they had carried prior to their transformation and began sorting through them, removing their Pokemon and any personal items that they could not bare to get rid of, and of course Azurill. (Who had been there all the time, since the beginning of the story. Whatever evidence there is that might make you think otherwise is WRONG.) They incinerated the bundle once everything irreplaceable was removed, except for Brock's book of pickup lines and Gary's hair gel. Both men sobbed like babies as the flames burned the two items to ashes. Once that was done, the small blue water mouse Pokemon looked up at the dragons crowded around her uncertainly.

-Mama? Papa?- Azurill squeaked in confusion.

_"Yes honey it's us, we uh..."_ Misty began.

_"Evolved!"_ Ash suggested

_"Evolved? Yeah, evolved, that's it, mommy and daddy evolved, would you like to evolve too?"_ Misty asked psychically. The small water mouse nodded rapidly. Ash spread his wings and rose into the air, then swooped down and grabbed the small water Pokemon. He carried her high up, until they were above the clouds.

_"Sweetie, listen, daddy is gonna drop you, but don't panic okay?"_ Ash said. He had no idea why changing Azurill required what he was about to do, but something inside him told him this was the right way.

-Okay papa, I'm not afraid!- Azurill squeaked loyally. Ash smiled, his heart touched by his daughter's trust in him. And then he released the small Pokemon, spreading his wings as she began falling towards the water below.

SHINING LIGHT OF TRANSFORMATION! Ash shouted, a beam of light reflecting off of him onto the small plummeting mouse. When the light hit Azurill, her body began to shift and change. However, she was still falling! _Come on! Work work WORK! _Ash desperately shouted in his mind. The small Pokemon was plummeting too fast to see her transformation. Ash looked away despondently, knowing there was nothing more he could do for her. When Azurill passed the Sky Pillar, Misty roared in distress. Max gasped and rushed to the edge of the roof to watch her fall, Rayquaza anxiously looking down alongside him. Brock nibbled his claws anxiously in fright. May chased her tail in circles until she got dizzy and had to stop. Gary silently rooted for the little rat to die, since he knew that if he said it out loud Misty would kill him.

Finally, seconds before hitting the water that would have had the same surface tension as solid steel, the small blue blur far below swooped upwards and began to rapidly ascend, the small mouse, no, _dragon_ flying back to her father.

_"Papa? Are we playing peek-a-boo?"_ the small dragon projected, causing Ash to nearly fall out of the sky with surprise. He turned around to see a small blue dragon, with four fluffy feathered wings and eyes shining like sapphires. She had two short horns sticking out the back of her skull. Her tail had a large pearl embedded on the tip of it. Her two arms ended in two tiny hands with four claws on the end of each. What's wrong, papa? she projected as she cocked her head to one side, perturbed by her father's stunned silence.

_"Nothing, my little Star Sapphire, let's return to your mother and brothers, he said, gently nudging the small dragon with his snout."_ He didn't know why he called her that; he just knew somehow it was her name. The two descended back to the Sky Pillar and their waiting family. Misty immediately embraced the small dragon while Rayquaza and Max sighed in relief. Gary grunted in disappointment.

_"Don't you ever scare me like that again!"_ Misty projected angrily, hugging her daughter tightly.

_"Yay! Sapphire flew!"_ Max shouted happily, dancing in celebration. May danced with him.

_"Did'ja see me Rayquaza? Did'ja see me? One day I'll fly like you do!"_ Sapphire projected to her big brother.

_"Of course you will, Sapphy."_ Rayquaza projected back _"You're a natural, I'd better watch out, you could give me some major competition with those moves you pulled off someday!"_

_"Now we just have to get back my big brother and sister and Uncle Voltjin and we'll be a whole family again!"_ Max said cheerfully.

_"Oh yeah, Phanphy and Togetic"_ Misty said in surprise. _"We need them too. Um…but how are we gonna get them here?"_

_"I believe Togetic is already on her way,"_ said Rayquaza. _"Mew sent her a message before you all transformed to let her know what's going on. She should be here shortly. But as for Phanphy…"_ He shrugged.

_"Hmm…"_ Ash thought for a moment. _"Well, Misty, Gary, Rayquaza and I are all too big and noticeable to go without causing a big stir. Max is too young and small to fly that far, so…"_ He looked at Brock.

Brock felt a deep sense of dread. _"Ash, why are you looking at me like that?"_

_A few hours later…_

_"I hate you,"_ Brock, back from his brief sojourn to Professor Oak's lab and now covered in ooze, scorch marks, and bleeding from a number of cuts said to Ash, dropping the elephantine Phanphy on the top of Sky Pillar. _"One day, I swear I'm going to poison your meals. I'm a disgruntled servant, I can do that you know."_

_"I think we're immune to poisoning,"_ said Misty.

_"Damn,"_ said both Brock and Gary, who had been planning the same thing.

Almost immediately Phanphy jumped onto Ash's back. -Daddy!- he cheered.

Togetic, who had arrived a few moments earlier, looked at Ash then Misty, shaking her head ruefully. -Well, this was certainly not the family reunion I was expecting.-

_"Same here, dear. I'm still not quite sure why it turned out this way. Phanphy, could you please stand next to your sister?"_ Ash asked his son. The small baby Pokemon immediately complied with the request. As soon as the two siblings were side by side, Ash and Misty nodded to each other and powered up, going with their instincts.

_"SHINING LIGHT OF TRNSFORMATION!"_ Ash shouted, a beam of light making a beeline for the baby elephant Pokemon.

_"WHITE LIGHTING TRANSFORMATION!"_ Misty shouted, releasing a beam of white lightning from her mouth at the evolved egg type. The attack would normally have been made to kill, but currently it had been altered to transform others instead. Slowly Togetic began to feel the changes spread through her body. Her form changed in ways to make it similar to Misty's, only much smaller. Her eyes grew wider and shone blue, a sharp-toothed grin appearing on her face. Her skin turned a paler white then Misty's, but it seemed to almost shine more.

Phanphy's body seemed to grow a silvery down-like fluff. The small elephant Pokemon's trunk shrank back into his face to make a short little snout. His eyes grew massive, taking up a huge section of his face. Underneath his new fluff, his skin hardened and turned white. His ears receded down his back and became two small and stubby wings. The red markings on his skin disappeared completely. His flat feet grew and separated into claws. His front legs receded to form arms. His tail grew longer and thicker. The small blue eyed chick that Phanphy had become chirped happily.

_"So Mom, Dad, what do we do now?"_ Togetic asked.

_"Well, first your mother's going put Sapphire and Phanphy down for their nap, then when it gets dark, me, you, and your mother have a little visit to make,"_ Ash explained.

_"Wait, I am? Why can't **you** put them down for their nap?!"_ Misty asked angrily.

_"Because I don't know how, and that's your job, you're the mom aren't you?"_ Ash retorted.

_"Why you! How dare you say that, you arrogant chauvinistic male bastard!?"_ Misty yelled.

_"Hey, I am **not** a bastard!"_ Ash replied angrily. _"If anything, you are! Er, I mean, uh, you know what I mean!"_

_"Ahhh, just like old times,"_ Rayquaza said blissfully as Ash and Misty's argument degenerated into a rather violent tussle, one which Misty naturally won.

Gary and Brock looked at him in disbelief. _"You mean your original parents were like this too?!"_ Brock asked incredulously.

_"Of course they were, replied Rayquaza. If they weren't, then Ash and Misty would not be the perfect reincarnations for them."_ The other two dragons sweatdropped.

_"Go get 'im, mom!"_ Max cheered. _"Rip his wings off!"_

_"Uncle! UNCLE! I GIVE!"_ Ash roared, thrashing his legs and beating his tail on the ground as Misty tugged hard at the wings on his back.

After Ash recovered from his beating and the baby dragons were put down for their nap, Ash, Misty and Togetic flew off towards the Johto region. Brock stayed behind to look after the kids and Rayquaza stayed to look after Gary. As the family flew together, Ash started having flashbacks of memories he couldn't quite identify as being his own. Except they were. For some reason.

_flashback_

Pearlous the shining dragon looked into the unhappy face of his young son Rayquaza. Mew has asked me to go, she would go herself but Celebi has foretold that the future's development will require her to remain here, Pearlous tried to explain to his son as he and his mate prepared to leave. _"Your mother and I must go; I need you to take my place until I return."_

Rayquaza looked solemnly into the face of his father. _"Why do you have to go? Couldn't they send me, or Lugia?"_ Rayquaza asked.

Pearlous sighed as he continued to explain. _"New legendaries will be coming into the world soon. Lugia has been instructed on the ones he will be asked to lead, and tomorrow you begin instruction on leadership of another bunch of legendaries. You must also look after the three Regis, they will need guidance as well."_

_"What about my baby brother?"_ Rayquaza asked.

_"If he can be away from your mother for long enough, we shall leave him here with you. If not, he shall accompany us,"_ Pearlous explained. _"Which means we'll probably have to bring Sinser and Marievious too, to better take care of him."_

_"What about Rubulous? Surely he won't approve of you leaving me in charge,"_ Rayquaza pointed out.

_"You're right, he won't, which is why he'll be coming with us, his skill is needed as well."_ Pearlous stated. _"Besides, we can't possibly leave him here, he'd probably do something stupid and blow up the world if he were in charge. You are of age, my son, continue our legacy until we return. As he said this, Pearlous stretched out his neck and affectionately nuzzled his son farewell. And we will return. I give you my word."_

_End flashback_

_"Ash? Ash! ASH!"_ Misty yelled mentally at her mate.

Ash blinked and shook his head. _"What? Oh, sorry Misty,"_ Ash apologized. _"I just sorta zoned out."_

Misty rolled her eyes. _"You're a legendary and you still haven't changed. You still have your head in the clouds."_ She laughed as Ash sweatdropped. _"Well, anyway, we're here."_ Their flight at an end, they began descending towards Mt. Silver. The trio landed at the mountain's base and walked over to a cave carved into the side of a cliff. In that cave a small gray-green Larvitar slept next to its much-bigger mother Tyranitar. Ash felt great warmth welling up within him as he saw the two sleeping. It had hurt him a lot to let Larvitar go, and now he had the power to get him back, and more. Ash let out a mighty roar, waking the two from their sleep with terrified screams.

Misty rolled her eyes. _"The word 'subtlety' means absolutely nothing to you, does it?"_

_"Shut up,"_ Ash grunted, flushing as he saw Togetic snickering at him.

-Aaaahhh! Who woke me up? Yikes! Giant glowing dragon-things! Stay away from my child!- Snarling, she got to her feet, intending to massacre anyone who threatened her son.

Larvitar, however, wasn't the least bit scared; he somehow already knew who the big shiny dragon was. -Dad! You came back, and you evolved! Yay!- Larvitar exclaimed, running up to Ash and snuggling up against his giant leg.

Ash looked over to see Tyranitar shaking in fear and rage at his proximity to her child. -Son, get away from that thing, it could eat you up in one bite! Let Mama take care of that thing!-

Ash sweatdropped. _"Why's she acting so hostile towards me?"_

_"Maybe because you woke her up the same way a predator wanting to use the same cave as her would, plus it looks like you're about to eat her son?"_ Togetic pointed out.

Ash quickly tried to put the angry mother's fears to rest by lowering his gigantic snout and gently nuzzling the small larva Pokemon, who squeaked happily. _"It's good to be back, son,"_ Ash projected.

Tyranitar blinked in confusion. -Son? Wait, but that would mean…you're that trainer from before! But how?-

Relieved that Tyranitar was quick enough to pick up his identity so fast, Ash projected, _"I'll explain it to you when we return home."_

-Home?- Tyranitar questioned, wondering what was wrong with the cave they were in now. It was perfectly fine for her son and herself.

_"Surely my second queen and one of my many heirs would live with me and be part of the family?"_ Ash projected.

Tyranitar blinked. -Second queen?-

_"**SECOND** QUEEN?"_ Misty bellowed, looming over Ash ominously, crackling energy dripping from her jaws and a murderous look burning in her blue eyes. _"I SUPPOSE YOUR **FIRST** ONE ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU?!"_

_"Ooh, dad's in trou-ble!"_ giggled Togetic.

-Yay?- said a confused Larvitar.

Ash paled in fright and quickly tried to correct himself. _"Uh, I-I m-m-meant consort, not wife! ACK! HOUSEGUEST! HOUSEGUEST!"_ He screamed as Misty pinned him to the ground and started savaging him with her claws. _"And other heir—SWEET ARCEUS, THE PAIN!"_

Tyranitar sweatdropped as the children laughed at Ash's agony. -Will we eat better if we go with you than if we stayed here?-

_"Yes,"_ Misty said, looking up from gnawing at her husband's throat.

-We're in- Tyranitar said, hugging her son to her chest.

Misty got off Ash, allowing him to stagger back to his feet and spread his wings. _"SHINING TRANSFORMATION!"_ he shouted, light shining from his body.

_"TRICKSTER TRANSFORMATION!"_ Togetic shouted, pulling a sheet from thin air and draping it over a puzzled Larvitar. When Togetic removed the sheet, Larvitar was gone, in his place was a small light-green dragon with plate-like scales much like Ash and Misty's, but his wings were only the bone part with no skin. The skin in between his scales was cracked in various places, but it did nothing to ruin his overall shine. His claws were the same tone as his scales, being a light green, but harder than most diamonds. His teeth were long and jagged; they looked like they could be used for some ferocious act. One long fang jutted out from his jaw right to underneath the shield-like plate at the top of his head. His feet were long and scythe-like, composed mainly of one big claw instead of numerous smaller ones. A long tail moved in a whip-like fashion behind him.

Tyranitar stared at the creature her child had become, and then looked down to see her body had also changed while she was watching her son. Four long horns were sticking out the back of her head. Her body was covered by thick emerald green scales. Long graceful wings grew from her back. Her arms were now incredibly long, stretching almost to the ground as she stood upright, each finger ending with a long green claw. Close to her hips, many small crystalline appendages stuck out of her body. Her feet ended in huge black claws, three to a foot. She had grown to a monstrous size, though she was surprised she hadn't noticed it. Then again, she had always been very large. A long green tail thrashed behind her. She had a long beak like snout filled with huge sharp teeth. _"Well, how do I look?"_ She questioned.

_"You look amazing!"_ Misty projected happily. _"And as long as you have no intentions of seducing my husband, it'll stay that way. But we need to think of a new name for you, we can't just call you Larvitar's mother."_

_"How about, Emera?"_ the former Tyranitar offered

_"It's beautiful!"_ Larvitar said cheerfully. _"Just like you, Mama!"_

_"Not as pretty as you, Mother,"_ Togetic told Misty.

_"You're absolutely right, daughter,"_ Ash said, trying to suck up to his wife as much as possible to make up for his slip-up earlier. _"Now let's all go home so you can meet the family…and it's probably a good idea for us to get back as quickly as possible, before Gary does something stupid and causes the Pillar to topple."_ And so the five of them happily left together, a new home, family, and life awaiting them.

_As time went on, the way life has a tendency to do_

Ash and Misty were very happy with their new life. After making Brock bring all of their Pokemon to the Pillar, they offered them the chance to live there with them or be released into the wild. The majority elected to stay, since it meant they'd get to live in the Sky Pillar's plush digs and get better food than they had back at Oak's lab or the Cerulean Gym. Delia moved in as well, much to Ash's chagrin, since she kept embarrassing him despite his becoming a mighty dragon god. Regardless, Ash and Misty went on to have lots and lots of very good sex and, naturally, had three more clutches of eggs, which are due to hatch in a few decades.

When Misty's sisters found out what she had become, they suffered a total psychotic break at the thought of their younger, scrawnier sister becoming more beautiful and powerful than them. Taking pity on their shattered psyches, Misty turned them into her priestesses to serve in the new temple being built out of Cerulean Gym. They seem to be doing better as priestesses than they ever were at being gym leaders.

Brock went on to serve Ash and Misty and is still currently serving them to this day, much to his chagrin. He has yet to find a mate, though he frequently kidnaps human women in attempts to make them fall in love with them, but Ash and Misty always make him put them back. Emera at one point offered to sleep with him, but he reacted with such surprise and disgust (still being hung up on human women at the time) that she angrily beat him to a pulp and resolved never to be nice to him again. Give him a few decades though, and he'll probably come around.

Brock's family is very happy for him, believing him to be Ash's executive assistant with an extensive harem of attractive women rather than the lowly (and single) servant he actually is. Can you blame him for lying to them?

Gary hasn't found a mate either, not for lack of trying. It wasn't that no young woman wanted to be a dragon, there were lots of those, it's just that there were very few people in the world who were willing to give up their humanity for _Gary_ of all people. As a result, he spends most of the time sulking in his dank cave by himself, plotting Ash's murder or world domination or something like that since he has nothing better to do.

Voltjin became a very powerful and popular legendary for a new guy, much to the annoyance of Raikou and Zapdos. A new job opening came up and he became the Legendary in charge of fixing electrical and mechanical problems. As a result, engineers, scientists, mechanics, programmers, and Porygon around the world often pray to him for aid. In the increasingly modernizing world, this has made him very important and much-needed, also much to Zapdos and Raikou's frustration, since they're just stuck with thunderstorms, and people don't really pray much to have one of those come around.

Larvitar, later named Tyrannus, grew up to be a strong and proud dragon. He has inspired many new legends so far and is currently being hunted by a new criminal organization known as Team Wyvern.

Emera's fine, and in the market for a spouse since Brock foolishly spurned her.

May recently learned how to pick her nose with her tongue.

Max grew into a strong dragon; he is currently being taught by Rayquaza to watch over the atmosphere and keep away all interstellar threats.

May's Pokemon grew bored with living in Sky Pillar and went off to do their own thing. Blaziken, no longer forced to participate in frivolous contests, disguised himself as the trainer of the others and quenched his thirst for battle by entering, and then winning, the Johto League, becoming the second Pokemon ever to become a Pokemon Master. (The first being Mewtwo, who is very proud of that title.)

As for May's family.they started asking a few too many questions about what had happened to their children, so a couple of Ditto were employed to take Max and May's place as humans full time. So far, their parents have yet to notice they're phonies.

Togetic, later named Angelia, became the Trickster legendary and spends most of her time devising elaborate and harmless (though very irritating) pranks, such as causing a giant heap of banana peels to trip up a bunch of Pokemon in a marathon, turning an entire city to wiggly rubber, and painting Ho-Oh pink. She's currently in hiding, due to the enraged (and pink) Ho-Oh still searching for her, but that doesn't stop her from causing tricks and pranks all over the world anyway.

Sapphire grew into a beautiful blue dragon. Later in life she and the Lugia known as Silver took a shine to each other and started courting. Both their parents expect an official coupling and children any year now.

Phanphy, later named Junior, eventually grew up looking just like Ash and is currently learning how to perform his father's job.

Latias continued to long for Ash from a distance for a while, but she was not a home wrecker so she let her romantic fantasies of him die and moved on with her life. She's recently started courting Rayquaza.

Groudon never did pay Kyogre back for the sled he broke.

Dr. Eve's 'hallucination' so unnerved her she checked herself in to a psychiatric institute.

Team Rocket inevitably tried to capture Ash and his family and were horribly beaten. Ash considered eating them, then decided they were just too pathetic to kill and spared their lives. He made them into his missionaries and dispatched them to spread the word of the dragon gods. Unfortunately, they suck at it, just like everything else, and keep getting run out of town tarred and feathered while people throw rocks and garbage at them.

On his way to a date with Latias, Rayquaza saw two small specks on the horizon, one pink and one green. When he got closer and saw them better, he realized both of them were Mews. The pink one was obviously the one he was familiar with, but the other one was somebody he'd never seen before. Both Mews giggled before teleporting away in opposite directions, Rayquaza just smiled to himself and shook his head. _Guess it's true what they say, Mews are funny creatures, you never can tell what they're thinking._

fin


	13. Azure Days pt 1

Azure Days (Part 1 of 3)

Disclaimer: We only own the people you don't recognize. And even then we may not. Capeesh?

Author Note: This Story is written by Rusty Raccoon. It's by far the longest Chronicle yet...

In fact, as of now, I have decided to split this into two, for easier reading. Enjoy!

----

It was a special night in the region of Kanto. There was to be a meteor shower that very evening. This specific shower was an event that only took place once every 17 years. On this night, three friends had chosen to drive out into the woods to view the event far from the glare of the city lights.

"We've been driving for two hours, I think we're far enough," Chris, who was sitting in the passenger seat, said.

"This is a once every 17 years type of thing. We have to make sure that we find the best spot," Matthew, the driver, replied.

Chris had brought his two Pokémon, a Rattata and Spearow, with him. They were sitting on his shoulders.

Alexandra, who was a friend to both young men, seemed impatient as well. "I think we're far enough out, I can't see any city lights at all. Besides, we're in a clearing now. If we go much further, we'll be back in the woods."

"All right," Matthew said.

He stopped the car, pulling it to the side of the road. The three got out, all stretching. Chris' Rattata ran down his arm and into her trainer's open hands. Meanwhile, his Spearow flew around, seeming to take in the area.

"Cool night," Alexandra said.

Chris nodded "Good thing we brought our sweaters. If you're cold, um, you know you could, um..."

"Sit close to you?" Alexandra replied.

"I have coffee in a thermos if you two are interested. So, how many shooting stars do you think we'll see per hour?" Matthew asked.

Chris shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno, ten maybe?"

"That doesn't sounds like a lot," Alexandra said, looking disappointed.

"Yeah, we'll probably see at least 50!" Matthew exclaimed hopefully.

Chris grinned, "Always the optimist. How about this, if we see more than 20 per hour, I'll buy coffee for the next month. If we see less, you buy it. Sound good?"

Matthew nodded. "Deal!" Chris and Matthew were co-workers at a store that sold any number of Pokémon products, and so were both pretty good friends.

Chris' Rattata, Whiskers, climbed back onto his right shoulder and chattered at him enthusiastically. The young man wished he could understand her. "We're just placing a friendly wager. Nothing serious," Chris said. He looked around, having trouble seeing in the dark. "Hey Jack, you out there somewhere?"

"Spearow!" was the response.

"Probably looking for a worm to eat or something," Alexandra suggested.

"I have food in the backseat if you want any," Matthew offered.

"Rattata!"

Jack landed on Matthew's right shoulder, almost as though by command.

"I think they approve," Chris said with a chuckle.

Ten minutes later, Chris and Alexandra were lying on the hood of the car while Matthew was lying on the roof. Jack sat perched on Chris' right leg while Whiskers was curled up on Chris' stomach. Matthew had let his own Pokémon, Sparkie the Pikachu, out as well so he could see the show too.

"Any idea on when we're supposed to start seeing them?" Alexandra asked.

"The newspaper said between nine and ten. I'm glad we have tomorrow off so we can stay up late," Chris said with a smirk.

"Let's just hope they start the show soon. I don't want to owe that much coffee!" Matthew said.

Chris checked his watch to see that it was nine thirty-five. Just as it seemed that the show was going to be a bust, a brilliant streak of light flew over the group, disappearing into the night sky.

"Not bad," Alexandra said, impressed.

"Plenty more where that came from," Matthew said knowingly.

Chris petted Whiskers. "That's a meteor. Isn't it neat?"

"Spearow?" Jack asked, flapping his wings.

"Err, I don't think you'd want to fly high enough to see them up close," Chris said.

Two more streaks lit up the sky above them. For the next two hours, the show continued with meteor after meteor, and Chris was resigned to owing Matthew coffee However, the show was enjoyable enough that he was convinced it was worth it. As the tail end of the meteors appeared to streak over, the group started getting ready to go home. Jack and Whiskers were tired, so Chris put them back into their Pokéball so they could get to sleep. Matthew returned Sparkie to his Pokéball as well. The group had gotten up and was on the ground when what appeared to be the last meteors lit up the sky. They waited for a moment to see if any more were coming, and then got back into the car when it became evident that that was it, everyone yawning. Chris turned the radio on, and relaxed in the passenger seat.

"That was a pretty good show. It seems I owe you coffee for the next month," Chris said.

Matthew was getting into the car and chuckled. "Don't worry about it, I was only kidding."

Chris shook his head. "No, no, I'm a man of my word. I'm good for it."

Matthew shrugged his shoulders. "Hey if you're up for it, then I'm good."

Alexandra yawned and stretched. "Speaking of coffee..."

Matthew nodded. "Yeah, I think we can stop somewhere on the way back."

The radio station stuttered and turned to static. Chris tried adjusting the station but had no luck. "That's strange," he said, puzzled.

The ground began to shake as a brilliant light illuminated the area above them.

"I don't think the show is over!" Alexandra cried.

Chris opened the door and looked up to see an almost blinding light heading in their direction. "Holy shit!"

"They didn't say anything about this!" Matthew yelled in horror.

The shaking increased and the group feared the worst. Chris watched as the light shot right over them and streamed into the forest behind them. Then, a deafening explosion that caused him to cover his ears while squeezing his eyes shut filled the area. He felt the ground shake hard enough to shake the car and throw him onto his back, nearly knocked him out. As the quake subsided, a dazed Chris got up and rubbed his eyes before opening them. His entire body ached. His primary concern, however, was for his friends and Pokémon.

Chris looked into the car. He saw that Matthew and Alexandra, while dazed, appeared otherwise unharmed. Unfortunately, the car was another story. The engine and radio were dead. Now feeling a deep panic rising, Chris checked the passenger side seat to see the two Pokéball where he had left them. An examination of them brought relief when he saw that Jack and Whiskers were all right.

"What happened?" Matthew asked.

"Did you get the number of the truck or whatever the heck that was?" Alexandra asked.

Matthew tried to restart the car, but to no avail. "Something's wrong. I wonder if there was an EMP pulse. Oh my God, what if that was a weapon?" Matthew asked, horrified.

"I don't know but we'd better take a look. Or, if you want, you guys can stay here and I'll check it out," Chris offered.

"No way am I letting you go there alone. What if it's some Team Rocket plot or some other thing out to kill us or something?" Matthew asked.

Chris was relieved when Matthew said that. He didn't want either of the others going alone but at the same time, he didn't want to go by himself. He considered sending Jack to fly for help but knew that the Spearow needed his rest.

The three headed towards where the whatever-it-was had impacted. Chris kept the two Pokéball in his coat pocket, as he didn't want someone to steal or otherwise harm them while he was gone. He'd heard that the balls were strong enough to survive just about anything, so felt his friends were safe with him. While he didn't want to tell Matthew or Alexandra (lest he appear a coward) a part of Chris wished he could take refuge in a Pokéball. However, if someone were in danger while he was safe, he wasn't sure he'd like that.

"I don't like this, we should call the police or something," Alexandra said, sounding agitated.

"I don't have a cell phone," Chris confessed sheepishly.

Alexandra and Matthew both tried theirs, only to find that they appeared as inoperative as the car.

They walked for ten more minutes, past singed and uprooted trees. Chris prayed that no Pokémon had been in the area at the time of impact. As they came over a small hill, they saw a small glowing blue/green rock in a very deep hole before them, nothing but shattered trees and desolation surrounding it on all sides.

"My God," Alexandra whispered.

"What a mess!" Matthew exclaimed.

Chris looked at the rock, feeling almost drawn to it. He knew better, yet something almost seemed to be guiding him towards it. If Jack or Whiskers were awake, they'd probably be yelling at him to back away.

"It's almost beautiful," Chris said, starting to make his way down the slope towards the meteorite.

"Maybe we should get away from it. What if it's radioactive or something?" Matthew asked, rather worried.

"Or what if it's what's left of a weapon?" Alexandra asked, equally worried.

Despite not advancing any further towards the meteorite, Chris felt a tingle run through his body.

"Yeah, you guys are probably right," Chris said after a moment.

"Probably what?" Matthew asked.

"Err, Chris, are you feeling all right?" Alexandra asked anxiously.

"I'm fine, why do you ask?" Chris asked.

"Because you just said Furret in place of right!" Matthew snapped.

Chris suppressed a laugh. He doubted Matthew would joke about something like this but Chris wondered why his friend would lie. "Why would I say something so ridiculous?" Chris asked.

Alexandra and Matthew began backing away from him. "You're starting to scare me! Since when do you speak Furret? I mean, you just used that word twice!" Matthew said, very alarmed.

Chris scratched his chin, feeling what appeared to be several days' worth of stubble. He felt dizzy and almost fell to the ground. This was very odd.

"Okay, I think it's time to get help," Matthew said hurriedly.

"What do you mean?" Chris asked.

"What did you say? We can't understand you!" Matthew snapped.

Chris saw Alexandra look at Matthew. Was there something wrong with him? Chris shook his head. "What do you guys mean, I'm speaking clearly! I can understand you guys!" Chris said.

"Chris, listen to me, you sounded like a Furret. I ... oh my God!" Alexandra gasped.

Looking behind him, Chris was half expecting a monster to have broken out of the meteorite. When he saw that it was still glowing, but otherwise unchanged, he was mystified.

"Chris, we need to get you to a hospital!" Matthew said.

"Why?" Chris asked.

His face was warmer and when Chris reached to scratch it, he felt what almost seemed to be fur on it! Even worse, his jaw felt funny. "Okay, what's going on?" Chris asked, starting to get worried.

Chris noticed that something seemed to be happening to Matthew. While it was hard to see in the dark, it almost appeared as though red and white fur was growing on Matthew's face. Matthew looked dizzy for a few seconds. When he recovered, he stared at Chris.

"Your ... ears, they're getting longer!" Matthew cried in alarm.

"My ears, you're the one growing fur on your face!" Chris retorted.

Alexandra looked panicked. "Now both of you are talking like Pokémon! Can't you understand what you're saying!?"

"She's right. You were ... are talking like a Furret!" Matthew said.

Chris felt his face and found that he had a short muzzle. Something was tugging at the back of his pants and he could have sworn that the temperature had gone up.

"Is it getting hot out here? Seriously, I'm not trying to pick you up, it's hot!" Chris said.

Alexandra looked shocked. "You guys are going crazy. I have to get out of here before ... before...oh no!"

Chris looked at Matthew and then at Alexandra. White fur had covered Matthew's face, turning red around his left eye and extending up to an ear that was growing from the top of his head, as well as covering his right cheek. Chris' pants were really starting to feel constrictive at the back.

Alexandra looked shocked. Chris saw why when dark fur seemed to grow on her face. Hearing of a bearded lady was one thing. Seeing his companion growing fur was another!

"Okay, you guys are right. Maybe we need to get to a Pokémon centre," Chris said, trying not to sound as worried as he actually was.

"Don't you mean a hospital?" Alexandra asked, trying not to panic as well.

"Yes but, the word came out by itself!" Chris said, nearly losing it.

The three started to run back towards the car. Chris felt the back of his pants getting tighter until they were too painful to keep on. Resigning himself to the inevitable, he unbuttoned and slid them down his legs, kicking them off after working them around his shoes. It was then that he saw what was going on. He was growing a tail, ringed like that of a Furret!

Matthew, who was ahead of him, seemed to be having the same issue with his pants. The young man's ears were at the top of his head, tufted. One was white, the other half red.

Chris realized that Matthew kept saying the word Zangoose, which if Chris remembered correctly had that coloration. Chris had a moment of terror as he realized that if he and the others became Pokémon that Jack and Whiskers wouldn't have someone to take care of them! The young man, who it seemed wouldn't be a man for much longer, didn't stop to consider how this was happening! He had others to worry about; he couldn't afford to become to become a Furret!

"Ack! Guys, help!" Alexandra cried. She was speaking the language of the Sneasel now.

One of her ears appeared different from the other.

"Just like a Sneasel," Matthew whispered.

"Yes, and you're looking like a Zangoose," Chris replied.

"Nice tail!" Matthew commented.

Chris looked back to see his tail was long and bushy. In another situation he might have considered it huggable. However, when this was happening for real, hugging things was the last thing on his mind.

"Guys, what ... we're becoming Pokémon! We have to get help!" Alexandra shrieked.

"What can we do?" Chris asked helplessly.

He watched Alexandra's hands as they began to reshape. A quick glance at Matthew's hands showed the same was happening to them. Alexandra's hands were turning white, her fingers merging into what appeared to be three-digit claws. Matthew's were doing the same, although his were ending in black claws.

Chris held up his right hand, still clutching his pokébelt. His hands still appeared as hands, albeit with short claws and glove-like fur.

"My feet!" Alexandra cried.

She started clawing at her shoes, unable to get a grip with her changing hands. Chris leapt into action, feeling his tail move behind him. He helped Alexandra to undo her shoes and remove her socks. What he saw shocked them both.

"My feet!" Alexandra cried again. Her five toes were changing into two long claw-like digits on each foot. "Chris, you look like a Furret! Are you okay?" Alexandra asked, trying to distract herself from what was happening to her feet.

"I'm ... fine. I ... Matthew, how about you?" Chris asked.

Chris turned to see that Matthew had removed his clothing. Chris was about to object but realized that his lack of pants wasn't much better. At least, Chris realized, it let him get a better look at what was happening to his friend.

Matthew's tail was developing. It was bushy and half red and half white. His right foot was red and all of his body was covered with white fur (at least where it wasn't red). If anything, Chris realized, like with a natural Zangoose, it gave Matthew decency.

"Matthew, you're naked. I ... please, why is this happening to us?" Alexandra asked.

"I don't know, but we'll find some way to be okay," Chris said with an assurance he didn't actually feel.

"You're kinda cute Matt, you too, Chris. Am I okay? I mean, looks aren't everything but tell me if I'm okay…" Alexandra pleaded, flushing.

It was difficult for Chris to tell with Alexandra's clothes but her form was still humanoid. He assumed she'd make a decent looking Sneasel. Chris noticed that he didn't seem to be changing anymore. Was he cursed to be some sort of human/Pokémon hybrid? Would the legendaries even allow such a creature to exist?

"You're fine, but it's hard to tell," Chris said finally.

"What with the dark and all," Matthew added.

"Good catch," Chris said in relief.

Matthew, who by now appeared as a Zangoose/human hybrid, smiled at Chris.

Chris sighed and removed the last of his clothing. He saw that his entire body was covered in fur. His chest and arms appeared to have light fur, beige if he remembered Furrets properly. His legs had dark fur, brown by Chris' recollection. Oddly, his feet were as light as his chest.

"Guy', I guess I can't deny it. You might as well help me out," Alexandra said with a heavy sigh.

Chris would have blushed if he could have. Alexandra asking him to help her remove her clothing was not something he expected from her. "Are you sure?" Chris asked.

"If I'm going to be a Sneasel thing, I might as well get that part over with," Alexandra replied.

"Well, okay," Chris said, swallowing and steeling himself. Chris helped Alexandra to remove her clothes and saw that his friend's body was now covered completely in uniform black fur. He saw what looked like a small jewel at the top of her chest just above her breasts (which Chris avoided looking at, least he upset Alexandra). Chris also noticed that Alexandra had developed a similar jewel above and between her eyes.

"I ... how do I look?" Alexandra asked, sounding quite timid and afraid.

"You're just fine," Chris whispered. "More than fine…"

Removing her clothing allowed Alexandra's tail to break free. Chris saw that in truth, it was three tails! They looked like large feathers, and were the same pinkish color as her left ear. He flushed, realizing she actually looked very beautiful like this. Chris had always considered Alex a good friend. He'd never thought of her in ways much beyond that. She had always been beautiful, but he was always too shy to think of her as anything more! At least, until right then…

Chris and Alexandra stared into each other's eyes for a moment in silence. "Um guys, you're not gonna get all, you know, in front of me are you?" Matthew asked awkwardly and ending the moment.

Chris blinked, turned, and shook his head. "Not yet, I mean, no, we wouldn't do that!" Chris said quickly.

Alexandra playfully elbowed Chris. "Don't go getting ideas mister." Chris wasn't sure how to react when Alexandra whispered into his ear. "Because you could end up encouraging me."

"I um ... so, um, err," Chris stammered, flushing even more under his fur.

"Okay, we're Pokémorph, I guess. So, someone had to ask it. What the heck do we do now?" Matthew asked.

"Um..." Chris said. He thought for a minute before remembering something, much to his horror. "I hope Jack and Whiskers recognize me!"

Matthew grabbed Chris' arm. "Let's get away from that meteorite first. I don't want to know how it'll affect them, or Sparkie." He patted the Pokéball on his belt, which he had managed to keep on despite taking his clothes off, anxiously.

"Good idea," Chris agreed.

With that, the trio walked back towards the car, trying to figure out just why this had happened and what they were going to do about it.

- - - -

2 days later.

In a small lab a moderate distance from the crash site, Professor Forrest Evergreen, along with his team of four researchers and one of the many Joy sisters were sitting down as Evergreen made a presentation.

"As you all know, two days ago we experienced a meteor shower. Radar stations and seismographs recorded what we believe was an impact about two hours from here," he said, pointing to a map of the region.

"Were their monsters in the meteor? Are they going to attack us and we'll have to go on a big adventure to stop them?" one the scientists, a very paranoid young man, asked.

The others giggled, Evergreen, however did not. "This isn't a joke. We have three missing persons that we have reason to believe were in that area. This is why I selected you four. You all have medical training to assist them in case they're injured or otherwise unable to get back home. We're also going to investigate the crash site to figure out what was in the meteorite and how it survived the trip to the surface. Joy is here because along with the trio, they had three Pokémon with them. She will assist with any medical assistance they may need."

"Is it safe to go out there? I mean what if this is one of these world killer things. Joking aside," another researcher said. He looked at the original assistant, who blushed. "Joking aside, what if we need someone more experienced to handle this?"

Evergreen sighed and took a sip of his coffee. "And who, exactly, would you propose we call for? Right now, I'd say the people in this room are the _best_ suited to handle this at this instant. Calling for more help would only take too long, and that's time those missing kids and Pokémon don't have. While the police are indeed putting together a team to search for the missing people, their preparations are taking too long, and they wanted a group with the right equipment and training to check the area while they're still gearing up. As I'm sure any of you with any interest in criminology or missing person's affairs know, the longer it takes to start the search, the less chance there is of finding whoever's lost. This means we need to move now, or risk losing those kids for good."

Joy nodded in agreement. "We need to hurry if we're going to find them. We have equipment and tools to keep us safe, they have nothing."

"As I said, the sooner we get out there, the sooner we can get those people," Evergreen stated, looking around the room. He focused on Joy before continuing, "And their Pokémon back home safe and sound.

Everyone stood up and collected their equipment. While there were jokes of monsters or other serious threats, the group was determined and sure everything would work out. They were, naturally, wrong.

- - -

Two hours later, the team was in their van and approaching the location in the woods. It was a warm day. The sun was shining, the sky was blue. Despite their confidence, the group felt apprehension. They could find anything and it might be something horrible. The earlier comments about alien monstrosities ran through everyone's heads, and they found themselves more and more worried they were stepping into some kind of clichéd horror movie from the 70's.

"We're almost there. I hope those people and their Pokémon are all right. I don't want to think about what might happen if they aren't," Joy said.

Evergreen saw a car sitting on the side of the road and pulled up beside it. Once he'd parked, everyone got out of the van and began to look around the area. Trained Taillow, Pidgeotto and Noctowl were dispatched to scout the area from the skies, while Growlithe, Mightyena, and Houndoom were led around on leashes, sniffing the ground to try and pick up the scent of the missing trio.

"I assume that's their car. No sign of them now, though," Evergreen commented, looking at the abandoned vehicle.

As Evergreen looked around the area, he noticed footprints on the ground. Cocking his head and squinting, he didn't need very long to tell that they weren't human! "What the hell?" he whispered to himself.

"Professor, the keys are still in the ignition!" Evergreen looked up to see one of the scientists, a young man, looking at the driver's seat. "They must have planned to drive out of here before…vanishing." He didn't want to say abducted, though they all knew that might be a possibility.

"What's that?" Joy asked, pointing to the footprints.

"They look like Pokémon prints, but they're far too big. It looks like Mr. Lisk's assumption about monsters may not have been that far off after all," mused Evergreen, causing the other researches to swallow nervously.

"Even if something's happened to make them bigger, that doesn't necessarily make them monsters," Joy pointed out.

Evergreen rubbed his chin and nodded. "I know but we have to use caution. They might see us as a threat. Can you determine the species from the prints?"

As Joy examined the prints, Evergreen walked towards one of the male scientists. "We've found prints in the ground. Take pictures of them and have the canines sniff them to see if they can pick up a trail, no need to let the police have to do more work than they need to when they get here. The rest of you, we're going to try and find that meteorite. Satellite images show that it did considerable damage to where it landed, so it shouldn't be hard to spot."

Walking back to where Joy was, Evergreen saw that she seemed disturbed. "Any luck?" he asked.

Crouching low to the ground, Joy was using a Pokédex to help identity what might have made them. "The three had a Spearow, Rattata and Pikachu with them. These prints aren't from any of those species."

Evergreen didn't like where this was going. Had oversized Pokémon attacked and/or taken the humans hostage, or perhaps worse? He didn't want to go back and have to tell the families of the three that they weren't coming back. "What species are they from?" he asked.

"It looks like a Furret, a Zangoose, and a Sneasel," Joy replied.

"Could be wild ones," Evergreen said, though he doubted it.

The nurse shook her head. "There aren't records of those species in this area. Unless there are other people or Pokémon missing that we don't know about, they may have come from the meteorite," Joy said. "The directionality of the prints indicates they came from that way, walked around the car and this area a bit, and then went back into the forest."

The scientist shook his head. "They'd never survive the impact if they had come down on that thing. At least, I hope they wouldn't have. If anything could survive an impact like that, I wouldn't want to take it on," Evergreen said.

The young man from before approached the duo, leading the canine Pokémon, who quickly started sniffing at the prints trying to detect a good scent trail to follow. "Those prints are huge!" she commented.

"Hmmm," Joy muttered noncommittally.

"What is it?" Evergreen asked.

"It's as though they were made by bipedal species. It's like they walk like us," Joy responded.

"Well, Zangoose and Sneasel do typically walk upright. Furret, though…yes, this is rather strange," Evergreen said.

"How many pictures should I take?" the young scientist asked.

"As many as you can, don't you watch those CSI shows? The police will want as many as possible, from every angle, and pictures of the car too and its interior, it could be a crime scene for all we know. The others and I are going to look for the meteorite. Keep a close eye out in case there's something here. I don't want to have to tell the director, or Officer Jenny, a sad story when we get back," Evergreen said.

Joy nodded and Evergreen walked away from the scene, slipping on a backpack full of all the essential equipment he might need and taking the lead from the three other scientists as they entered the woods. Some of the other canine Pokémon ran alongside and ahead of them, sniffing at the ground, while the bird Pokémon circled overhead occasionally to report if they had found anything. So far, they had not, but were able to point them closer towards where the meteorite had landed.

As they walked through the woods, Evergreen kept looking over his shoulders and to his right and left. It felt as though someone or something were watching them. While he figured it might just be his imagination, the idea that the creatures that could make those footprints were still around unsettled the professor. It didn't help that the canines looked uneasy and occasionally sniffed at the air as well, as if trying to scent something just out of their range passing a little too close by.

"I don't like it. If those things are around and came out of that meteorite, what if they attack us? What if they did something terrible to those three people?!" Lisk asked, panicking and starting to hyperventilate.

Evergreen rolled his eyes, reminding himself to check Mr. Lisk's medicine and keep him away from horror movies. "I'm sure there's a logical explanation for the prints. For all we know, this is someone's idea of a prank," Evergreen said, not really believing that.

Evergreen almost jumped when he heard a rustling in the trees to his left, causing the Houndoom and Mightyena to yelp and start barking in that direction. When the Growlithe scouted over to investigate, they found nothing.

"Oh GOD!" Mr. Lisk whimpered. "It's the monsters! They're hiding in the trees! In our shadows! And any minute now they'll leap out and EAT US!"

Evergreen grabbed the researcher by his collar and slapped him repeatedly. It felt better than it should have. "Settle down, man! This is a missing persons search, not a horror movie!" He dropped the dazed Lisk to the ground, ignoring the way the other researchers, even the Pokémon, stared at him. "Look, we're almost there. Let's just…try to stay calm and handle this like professional people, all right?" With that settled, Evergreen took the lead once more still unable to shake the sensation that someone was watching them. He kept walking anyway, leading the group into an area of the woods that was completely scorched, broken trees scattered everywhere.

They came to the meteorite moments later. It sat in the crater, still glowing ominously. The researchers were so amazed by this sight that they didn't notice the trained and disciplined canine Pokémon whimper in fright, turn about, and flee back into the forest, never to be seen again. Perhaps the humans should have followed the much wiser Pokémon's' example.

"I don't like the looks of this," Mr. Lisk whimpered, face still smarting from the slaps.

Evergreen noted that the meteorite was intact. From the size of it, he doubted anything could be hiding or had been hiding in it only to escape upon impact. His relief was short lived when he realized that if there wasn't anything in the meteorite, then those creatures must have come from the area.

"I don't know if it's safe to take samples," one of the researchers said, checking a Geiger counter. "According to this, that thing's emitting some kind of radiation. It's not at life-threatening levels, but it could still be somewhat harmful."

Evergreen agreed and was about to suggest they put on the protective suits they were carrying in their backpacks when he felt dizzy. He almost fell back, but the other two scientists, both young women, caught him. "What happened to...?"

Evergreen didn't have time to finish the sentence before he saw that the skin on his hands was turning green. He gasped, realizing that the radiation was indeed hazardous and radically mutating his DNA at a startling rate. When he saw three feather-like things growing out of his wrists his heart starting racing in his chest like a race car around a race track.

"What's happening to him?!" Lisk cried, looking as if he were about to defecate himself from fright. "Is it some kind of horrible alien virus?!"

"Run, get out of here before it affects you too!" Evergreen cried, staggering back to his feet. He felt as though he'd failed them. In his mind, he should have known this was going to happen, that a weird rock from outer space would carry some sort of lethal cosmic radiation. Pulling his white coat off, he saw the effect of the radiation poisoning and mutation rapidly spreading across his body. He recalled the footprints he had seen earlier, and came to a frightening conclusion.

"Professor, it's happening to me too!" one of the female scientists cried in horror.

Evergreen turned to see the young woman's black hair turning a deep orange. If it wasn't for what was happening to his body, he'd never have believed his eyes when he saw her hair burst into flames!

"My God," Evergreen whispered. Lisk screamed rather shrilly.

If that weren't enough, the sleeves of her coat were starting to burn away. Everyone gasped when they saw fire forming on her wrists as well.

"Oh no, please no!" Lisk cried, smelling much worse than he had before. He tried to run away, tripped on his own feet, and fell painfully to the ground. "Ow."

Evergreen managed to stand. The developed features on his wrists, three on each arm, had grown rather long. He felt the changes spreading through his body and saw white fur growing on the young woman, this stuff not seeming inclined to start burning.

"Come on, we have to get out of here before it's too late!" Evergreen said, though they all knew it probably was.

Unfortunately, Evergreen and the others were discovering that they were already past the point where return was questionable at best. Two horns sprouted from Lisk's face as brown fur grew on ears that were growing longer. The young man screamed in terror at what was happening to himself, fumbling desperately at the back of his pants. Evergreen saw why when not one, not two, but _three_ brown fur-coated tails emerged, each tipped with tassels.

The group started to walk as fast as their changing bodies would allow. They didn't get far before the young woman who hadn't yet started changing groaned.

She stumbled ahead of the group, holding her head. The three still changing (for the time being) humans watched in horror as the back of the young woman's pants burned away, a large tail burst through it, nearly hitting the group as a great flame ignited on its tip. She slid off her backpack off as a rip tore up the back of her shirt and coat, two large red-skinned wings bursting out from her back and spreading to either side of her.

"Mabel?" Evergreen asked, fearing the worst.

Mabel turned around, the group having to jump back to avoid her tail striking them. She was grimacing and had two horns protruding from her head

"Oh crap," Lisk whimpered pathetically.

- - -

Joy had taken as many readings as she could from the footprints. The other scientist had taken pictures and was getting worried. The canine Pokémon had followed the footprints into the woods, but had come back moments later, looking agitated. The birds had gone out to check on the Professor and the other researchers, and weren't back yet.

"They've been gone for a long time…" the researcher said uneasily.

Joy nodded. "If there are creatures like this around, we should try to find them, they might need help. What do you think Mr...."

"Francis, Carl Francis."

"Well Mr. Francis, what do you think we should do?" Joy asked.

"Carl is fine. I think we should look for them. They might be in trouble!" Carl answered.

"All right then, let's go look for them," Joy said. This probably wasn't a good idea, but she was worried too.

Carl led the way, the canines, seeming oddly reluctant, flanking them. Joy didn't want to admit that she was terrified. The footprints had her unnerved. The team being away for so long was even worse. If something had happened to them, she wondered what chance she would have of surviving.

They walked through the woods, following the trail of footprints left by the team as well as their scent. As they grew closer to what seemed like a damaged part of the forest, the prints became odd, and the dogs looked rather confused. Some of the prints resembled what Carl imagined a combination of human and Pokémon might look like. Others looked like hooves or large clawed feet.

Had there been more of those Pokémon-like creatures around? Carl wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer. Joy scanned each of the footprints. The hybrid-like ones came up without any matches. The others however, didn't make sense. One was a Rapidash, one a Tauros, one a Charizard and the last a Grovyle. Carl had never even seen a Grovyle before, let alone in this part of the world.

"Professor Evergreen, are you out here?" Carl called out. There was no reply. He kept on walking until he saw the meteorite. It was rather impressive-looking, and the glowing was cool. Carl wanted to examine it further but he knew that his friends were more important at the moment. When Joy approached from behind and touched Carl's right shoulder, the young man jumped and gasped in surprise.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Joy apologized.

"Where is everyone?" Carl asked, calming down.

The nurse frowned thoughtfully. "I have a theory," Joy began, not noticing, just as her predecessors had not, how the dog Pokémon that accompanied them had all fled into the woods, and the bird Pokémon were still nowhere to be found.

Turning, Carl wasn't sure he wanted to hear what Joy had to say. A sensation of dizziness washed over him, and he staggered slightly. He looked at his right hand and gasped. His pale fleshy skin was turning into orange scales! He felt a pressure forming on his back. That pressure lead to a tearing and feeling of release and a gasp of horror from Joy. Carl looked back with terror only to see he now sported a pair of wings!

Looking back at Joy, Carl was almost in tears. "Oh God, the people...us! That meteorite must have turned them into those creatures!"

Joy started trembling. "Oh no…" she whispered. Carl gasped when he saw pink fur started to grow on Joy's face. A bulge appeared on her belly. Joy pulled her shirt up to reveal that she now had a pouch with an egg in it!

The duo started running in blind panic, only to end up almost colliding with a humanoid Charizard after they had wildly fled what they hoped was a safe distance from the meteorite. "Stay calm, it will be over soon enough," the Charizard said, to which they naturally responded by screaming in terror.

Shivering and desperately hoping that this was all some horrible nightmare, Carl touched the top of his head with what were now three fingered hands ending is claws. Something up there felt not quite wrong but different. He felt what almost seemed to be a pair of tentacles growing from the top of his head. Now he knew what was happening to him. He was becoming a Dragonite, or at least something like one!

Carl heard someone approach from his right and turned to see what appeared to be a humanoid Grovyle with the torn remnants of a familiar lab coat and backpack draping his green form. "Professor?" Carl asked weakly, shuddering as his body continued changing.

Behind the professor, Carl saw other humanoid Pokémon approach, including a Furret, Sneasel and Zangoose.

"Yes Carl, it's me," Evergreen said sadly. "I'm sorry to see that you and Joy fell victim to the same curse we did."

"C-curse?" Joy asked timidly, gasping as she started growing plumper than she was comfortable with.

"I'm afraid so," the Zangoose said apologetically. "The curse of being…well…whatever it is we are now. There's no turning back now. Looks like you're both going to be just like us…forever."

- - -

One year later….

Timothy had recently returned from a trip to the Sevii Islands. When he'd arrived home, he had expected to spend some time with his friends Chris and Matthew telling them of his adventures.

News of Chris and Matthew's disappearance had dashed those plans. Although they'd been missing for a year, and nobody had been able to find them, or their friend Alexandra or the preliminary search team sent out to find them, or the several other search parties that had consecutively gone after _them_ and disappeared_,_ Timothy was determined to somehow locate them on his own, despite the fact that every other attempt had only led to the searcher in question vanishing as well.

He had spent the past two weeks with his Espeon, Ness, using his psychic powers in an attempt to find a trace of Chris and Matthew. Timothy had started losing hope, though, until Ness found a trace of something a three hour drive from their home town, deep in the forest where his friends had vanished.

Timothy knew it was a long stretch, but he wasn't about to give up even though the authorities had months ago. Chris and Matthew's families had said that they knew their sons were all right but weren't sure where they were. They had received a mysterious letter from Chris and Matthew claiming that they and everyone else that disappeared were all right, but refused to disclose their current location, and said that people should stop looking for them because it wasn't safe. The letter also told them to warn the authorities to declare the meteorite crash zone completely off-limits, because it was extremely dangerous. Residual radioactive residue on the letter convinced the police of this, and so now the area where the meteorite had fallen, and where everyone else had disappeared mysteriously, was sealed off by the police and Pokémon League.

That hadn't stopped a determined Timothy and Ness from sneaking through the secure perimeter, however, and into the forest. Ness had helped Timothy evade the patrols on the outskirts, though they had little to fear once they were inside the woods. Even the guards were frightened to go too far in, after what had happened to everyone else that went in there. Timothy found himself wondering a couple of times whether this was such a smart thing to do after all, reminded himself that things would be boring without Chris or Matthew around, and he had absolutely nothing better to do at all, so he might as well do something incredibly stupid and risk his life by venturing into a dangerous forest that nobody who had entered in the last year or so ever returned from.

Timothy walked up a road that ran through the forest, noting with some trepidation the several cars, vans, and official vehicles parked here and there, dusty, rusted, and abandoned.

"They've been here," Ness thought telepathically to Timothy, snapping him out of his worry that his car might get towed and junked if he vanished like the drivers of these vehicles did.

"Do you know where they are now?" Timothy asked.

"I ... they're near," Ness replied rather unhelpfully.

Whether the Espeon knew it or not, sometimes he projected his emotions along with the words he wished to send to Timothy. The young man didn't mind it for when he knew the emotions behind the words, it was much easier to discern what Ness meant.

In this case, Timothy could tell that Ness what nervous. Something was wrong. Chris and Matthew were nearby but there was something going on.

Timothy felt renewed anticipation. He wanted to see his friends again but was now nervous of what he might find. He felt bad for staying out of touch over the past year and wondered if he could have prevented their disappearances somehow. "All right, I'll look for them. I can tell you're nervous and I don't want you to get hurt. You'd better stay where it's safe," Timothy said.

Ness nodded. With that, Timothy picked up Ness' Pokéball and recalled him. Upon placing the ball in its holder, Timothy sighed. "I don't know how you guys could survive for a year out there. But, if you're here then I'll find you," Timothy said.

Timothy walked through the woods looking back and forth, calling his friends names occasionally and hoping he wasn't attracting anything…else. He found himself rather unnerved by the silence of the forest, and how there didn't seem to be any wild Pokémon at all about. It was almost unnatural. He also noticed that the trees in the area were damaged and looked as though there had been a fire or some other disaster not too long ago and only recently had plants started to grow back. "What happened here?" Timothy wondered.

He wondered if there'd been an attack or possibly a particularly intense battle involving a fire type. Timothy had an answer to his question when he came to a large hole in the ground, in a sloping and barren clearing all to itself, almost like a crater. There appeared to be something in the hole that was covered in dirt and had some vines growing over it. At first, it looked to be a rock. Upon closer inspection, Timothy found out that the rock had a slight glow to it.

"What the heck is this thing?" Timothy asked disturbed. He would soon get his answer.

Timothy felt dizzy for several seconds and almost fell onto the rock. Shaking his head, he realized that the rock might be radioactive, and he might have foolishly contaminated himself! No wonder Chris and Matthew's note had warned people to stay away! He started backing off from the clearly dangerous object when every muscle in his body began to ache.

It felt as though he'd been lifting weights, running laps and doing sit-ups for the past 40 hours straight. Then things went from bad to worse. His skin tone changed, becoming a dark gray. "What's...?"

Turning, Timothy started to run in hopes of escaping the effects of what he assumed were the rock's doing. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done. As Timothy ran, his shirt snagged on a branch. His chest and arm muscles were still aching and only then did he notice how tight his shirt felt. In his effort to escape, he tore frantically at the branch and heard a very loud rip, feeling suddenly exposed as the branch tore his shirt off. It was then that Timothy saw the effects of what was happening to him with far greater ease.

All of his chest and arm muscles had bulked up enormously, as though he were a body builder by vocation! His stomach was like a washboard, and he'd somehow become barrel-chested. "I'd scream but this isn't scary, it's actually kinda cool, well except for grey skin part," Timothy commented in amazement.

Timothy realized he'd seen that skin and physique before when he felt a sharp pain below his arms. For a few seconds, he feared that he had broken something in his panic. Hearing cracking noises and feeling something push its way out from under his arms; Timothy looked back and forth and gasped. "No, it can't be! That's not possible!"

Unfortunately, it was all too possible, as Timothy discovered to his dismay. Under each of his arms, a new arm was sprouting. Both of his new arms were just as developed as the originals, and once something in his mind clicked, they were as functional as the two he was born with.

When his third and forth hands along with all of his new fingers had finished growing, Timothy grunted and flexed the arms in front of his chest. For a second, he had an urge to pick the strange rock up and throw or smash it. However, he didn't want to make things worse for himself or the others that he had a sinking feeling the rock had done this to. If it was radioactive enough to do this, who knew what might happen if it was smashed?

When he stopped flexing his arms, Timothy felt something in his legs and on his head. His head began to itch. He scratched it using all four hands, something that already felt so natural he wasn't sure how he would have managed with only two. To his horror, he not only felt his hair falling out in clumps, but **also** felt three ridges developing in its place. That was when Timothy knew for sure what was happening.

He'd seen the physical features he now had on Machamps. But he wondered if he was becoming one, had the same thing happened to Chris and Matthew? He couldn't see either of them as a Machamp. However, if that was true and they'd become something else, Timothy worried that they were hiding out of terror or that someone was going to (assuming they already hadn't) capture them!

Worry over that angered him, and he slammed all four of his arms into the ground, cracking the soil beneath him. "If anyone's hurt them, I'll smash their skulls!" Timothy bellowed in fury.

The raw emotion and action felt natural. Timothy felt stronger than ever before, as though he could defend his friends if they needed his help. Timothy also felt complete. He didn't seem to be changing any further. It was as though he were a hybrid of Human and Machamp! He knew that if that was true, then there was hope for the others.

_Would also explain why they stayed away. People would fear or even try to hurt them!_

Timothy looked at his arms. The reality of his situation hit him. He'd become something unnatural! People would think of him a freak. He doubted he could ever go home like this. He let out a scream of anguish and despair that shook the trees as his voice echoed through the woods.

When the echoes died down, Timothy started to run blindly, not knowing where he was going or why. He didn't run for long before someone, or rather, some_thing_ walked into his path. Whatever it was jumped out of the way just before Timothy collided with it. Timothy saw a ringed tail, like that of a Sentret or Furret as he came to a stop.

"Calm down, you're going to be fine," a familiar voice said reassuringly. Timothy looked to his right to see what looked like a combination of a Furret and human in a bush, brushing leaves from his fur.

With his upper two arms, Timothy helped the Furret man up, finding the creature disturbingly light. Timothy was about a head taller than the other man, who Timothy noted wasn't wearing any clothes, not that he needed them any more than a natural Furret would.

"Who are you?" Timothy asked. The creature's voice had sounded familiar. _It can't be! _"Chris, is that you?" Timothy whispered in disbelief.

He wanted the creature to say no. It ... he had to say no! His friend couldn't be a mutant Furret of all things! "Yes, my name is Chris. How did you know that? Wait a second…Tim is that you?"

"No! I mean yes, I mean no! This is impossible! This has to be a dream or something!" Timothy cried desperately.

"How did this happen to you? Dumb question ... I know how it happened but why were you out here?" Chris asked.

"I was looking for you and Matthew and now I'm a freak!" Timothy wailed in despair.

"Tim, you're not a freak, none of us are freaks! Matt is here too," Chris said, trying to reassure his frantic friend.

"Matthew's like this as well? How can you can so calm? We're monsters!" Timothy screamed.

"No, Matt's not a Furret or a Machamp right?" Chris asked.

"How the Hell would I know?! I haven't seen him yet, you idiot!" Timothy couldn't believe how calm Chris was about this. Now Chris was telling Timothy that their friend Matthew had suffered this fate! Timothy had to wonder what he or they had done to deserve this. Had Timothy angered one of the legendaries? Was this some sort of Rocket experiment? Chris was far too calm in Timothy's eyes, leading Timothy to wonder if someone had brainwashed him and possibly the others. "What is he?" Timothy asked. He had to force the question out; as he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.

"A Zangoose. Think of this way, at least snake Pokémon won't bother us," Chris joked.

"No... I guess not," Timothy said faintly.

"So, how about a big hug? We haven't seen each other in a year," Chris suggested.

Timothy glared. "First of all, I'd probably crush you like a bug. You don't want a hug from a Machamp. Second, since when do you like hugs?"

Chris shrugged. "Alexandra. Sure she's only on the night shift now but…"

Timothy held all four of his arms out. "I don't wanna know." Sighing, Timothy folded all of his arms. "Okay, I do. What'd she become?"

"A Sneasel," Chris said happily.

"Is this a weasel convention or something? Although, it does sort of fit you," Timothy admitted.

"No, there are others. If you want, I can take you to our village for a tour. A lot's happened over the past year," Chris told him.

"I ... I guess," Timothy said, not seeing any other choice.

"Its right this way," Chris said, leading the way.

- - -

Chris led Timothy for several minutes through the woods until they came to a large space where many trees had been cleared away to allow the construction of a village, with numerous huts and other structures, along with a number of dwellings either built on top of each other, dug underground, or hidden inside larger trees. There were several small houses, other buildings he couldn't identify and even a primitive version of a Pokémon centre. "How many people are here?" Timothy asked.

"Maybe a hundred or so. A _lot_ of people came out looking for us, got transformed just like we did, and wound up shacking up with this. We had to send a letter outside telling them to stop sending people to look for us; otherwise we'd have a serious overpopulation problem on our hands!" Chris explained.

Timothy saw humanoid versions of several Pokémon species, along with plenty of regular Pokémon here and there. Among the hybrids were a Charizard, a Ninetales and even a Dragonite. Had Timothy not known these creatures used to be human, he'd probably have had a heart attack.

"How do you guys stay warm in the winter?" Timothy asked. Chris smiled and nodded at the Charizard and Ninetales. The Charizard, a female, had a loincloth and bikini-like top on but nothing else. The Ninetales, a female, had a shirt and shorts. "Don't tell me they're your girlfriends!" Timothy cried with a deep flush of envy.

"No, no. But, Helen and Mabel do help keep us warm in the winter," Chris said. "And the other Fire-types, naturally."

_Please don't say in more ways than one. Please don't say in more ways than one, _Timothy thought to himself.

Chris showed Timothy to the Pokémon Center, which had been constructed it out of wood. The craftsmanship was pretty lousy, which was only to be expected considering this group was more or less living in the wild.

"We should let Joy check you and your Pokémon out. Don't worry, she has her advanced equipment. She brought it with her then she came here," Chris explained.

"My Pokémon?!" Timothy cried, startled. "Great, there's no way Ness will recognize me…"

"Tim, it's not so bad," Chris reassured him. "Look, why not talk to your Pokémon. You can understand them now. I can even speak like a natural Furret. When this first happened to me, I did by default."

"But you're speaking English now," Timothy pointed out.

"We wanted to hold onto that part of our humanity, so we've decided to stick to it. Not all of us starting speaking in Pokémon when this happened. Think of it this way, at least you're one of the ones that didn't."

The duo walked into the center. Timothy saw that it appeared well decorated, despite being a bit dilapidated, probably since none of the people out here had much experience with architecture. He supposed they were lucky to build such a facility. "Why didn't anyone look at me strange?" Timothy asked.

"You're not the first newcomer. We've had at least one every month for the past year. I guess we've gotten used to it," Chris answered.

"Wait, can I see Matt at least?" Timothy asked anxiously, desperate for at least one other anchor of relative normality.

"Sure, I'll go get him," Chris said.

Timothy nodded and sat down on a bench with a sigh. He couldn't believe what was happening to him. It was bad enough for that rock to turn him into a hybrid, but to find out there were others and they'd built an entire village for themselves?

"What am I doing to do?" Timothy asked himself.

"Oh, Hello!" a cheerful, yet familiar voice said. Timothy looked up to see what looked like a humanoid Chansey standing before him. He was so startled that he almost fell off his chair. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to startle you. I'm Nurse Joy. Who are you?"

"Timothy. This ... this just happened to me," Timothy stammered.

"Well, you make a handsome Machamp. Now, why don't we make sure that you and your Pokémon are all right?" Joy said kindly.

Timothy wasn't sure he wanted them to see him that way. He worried they'd never be able to fight again. The thought that his years of training were about to end sent shivers down his spine. It couldn't end like this! "I guess, I ... there is a cure for this right?" Timothy asked pleadingly.

Joy put a comforting hand on Timothy's top right shoulder, a difficult feat considering their size difference; her head was only at his chest. "No, we haven't found a way to reverse this. But, life here is good. We've all had to adjust to this," Joy said gently.

"I see," Timothy said very quietly. Timothy followed Joy into the back area where she gave him a checkup. His vitals seemed to be healthy. When it came time for her to check his Pokémon out, Timothy took a deep breath. He knew they'd have to find out sooner or later. He released them all, starting with Ness.

"A baseball cap?" Joy asked, puzzled.

Timothy looked at the red cap that the Espeon wore. "He likes it."

"What... what's happened? Where are we? Timothy is that you?" Ness asked in surprise.

"Um, yeah…" Timothy said uneasily. "It's a long story."

Next, Timothy released the others. They were Bruce a Hitmonlee, Jackie a Hitmonchan, Chuck a Hitmontop, Bruno a Mightyena, and Kame-sama a Shiny Blastoise. They all stared in disbelief at him, something he couldn't exactly blame them for. "Ness, can you access my memories of the past hour or two and relay them to the others?" Timothy asked.

Ness nodded. Timothy did his best to think of the recent events. He felt as though he were telling them to Ness. After several seconds, his Pokémon were all asking questions Timothy was shocked (but not surprised, given what Chris had told him) when he was able to understand every word they said. Timothy found that while their language was simpler and seemed to have fewer words, it was more accurate and to the point.

"I know this is hard to believe. I don't want to believe it myself!" Timothy said unhappily.

"It's hard to accept, I understand. I just want to make sure that you're all okay," Joy said.

"It's okay, she's fine," Timothy told his Pokémon, when they looked at the large Chansey-like monstrosity dubiously.

The examination went well, Joy finding Timothy's Pokémon healthy and fit. When it was done, Timothy recalled them and went back into the front of the Center where he saw Chris (who Timothy still had trouble accepting as a Furret man, especially one without clothes!) standing with a Zangoose man. The Zangoose was pudgy and worse a coat and glasses.

"Matthew is that you?" Timothy asked incredulously.

"Of course it's me. Is that **you**?" Matthew asked.

Timothy gulped and nodded. "If that's really you then..."

"Come on bro, why would I lie about something like that?" Matthew asked. It sounded like Matthew and even used the same expression Matthew used. The tone of his voice was just the same as Timothy remembered. It was Matthew, without a doubt.

"So, you're a Zangoose, Chris is a Furret and..."

"You have four arms and are stronger then the two of us combined times, oh, about twenty," Chris said.

"I'd offer a hug or handshake bro, but I think that'd be a bit painful for me," Matthew said.

"Why don't you two catch up while I see if I can find a place for you to live? Besides, Alex wanted to talk to me about something. Just wait until I tell her the news," Chris said happily.

Timothy nodded. Chris left the facility and Timothy approached Matthew. For a few seconds, he was almost afraid to do as much as touch Matthew's furry arm. Timothy didn't want this to be real. To him, it couldn't be real. Their world was a strange enough place as it was!

"Go ahead bro, I won't bite. You're not a snake, so you're safe," Matthew joked

Timothy touched the fur on Matthew's right arm with his upper right hand. The former human was annoyed to say the least. Before it was a matter of right or left, now he had upper and lower to consider as well.

"Bro, I ... its real. This isn't right. I can't even give you a hug for fear I might crush you," Timothy said miserably.

"It's okay, I understand. I mean, we've all had to make changes. Alexandra has to deal with urges to occasionally run out and slaughter something after hunting and terrorizing it for hours. Even does it to us occasionally, without the slaughtering part. I have cravings for snake meat. You'll learn to control your strength," Matthew said confidently.

Timothy followed Matthew out of the Pokémon center. "Why doesn't Chris wear clothes anymore? He was always shy. He's the last guy I'd expect to go around naked!" Timothy asked as they walked past many other hybrids, some of whom were also naked.

Matthew shrugged. "He has his fur. Besides, like I've said, things have changed. Chris isn't as modest anymore, not that we can see anything of course. And if we did, I doubt it'd make much of a difference."

The duo walked through the village and down a stone-lined street with several houses (or huts, or even hovels) on either side. Most of the homes were made out of wood or dirt. While they weren't large, they were big enough to offer privacy and comfort.

"What happened in the past year? How did you guys build all of this? Why didn't you get help?" Timothy asked.

Before Matthew could reply, the duo came upon Bobby Lisk, who only wore a loincloth. "Bobby, meet Timothy, he's a newcomer. He's my friend," Matthew said.

Bobby offered his right hand, which was a three digit hand that looked as much hoof as hand.

"I'd better not, I might end up hurting you," Timothy said.

"That's okay," Bobby said. He walked off.

"I never thought I'd see a talking Minotauros--- err... Tauros minotaur," Timothy said.

"He was one of the scientists sent to investigate the meteor and to look for us a year ago," Matthew said. "And he, just like everyone else who came looking, got turned into one of us. I suppose it's a mixed blessing that we have so many people here, because we would've been able to build all of this otherwise. I think with your strength, we'll be able to do a lot more."

"Okay, but why didn't you get help?" Timothy asked again. "Other than that one letter to your parents that they turned over to the cops, there's been nothing! The families of everyone who's probably here are still worrying about their loved ones! Why didn't you call for help and go to a hospital?"

"Where we would be stuck in a lab, experimented on, and dissected?" Matthew asked.

"Ah. Point. But-"

"We don't get cell phone service out here, and it's risky to send messages," Matthew continued. "Since there's a risk someone might follow the messenger back and either get turned into one of us, or reveal us to the rest of the world. And we reaaaally don't want to be experimented on."

The duo continued down the street and went up to a house that Timothy assumed was Matthew's. They entered and a Pikachu immediately ran over to Matthew and jumped onto his right shoulder. "Hi, Sparkie," Matthew said, cuddling the rodent affectionately.

"Sparkie, it's me, Timothy," Timothy said, somewhat sheepishly.

"Hi, welcome to our home," Sparkie said. "About time you got here!"

Timothy surveyed the house. There wasn't much there, just about everything (which wasn't much) crammed into a single small room. This was to be expected, they lived in the middle of a forest after all, and none of them were exactly engineers or architects. It was amazing they had even been able to construct and maintain these shelters at all for the last year, especially with so many people, some of whom emitted fire, which was probably not helpful in this setting. He found himself wondering how they fed everyone, and dearly hoped cannibalism wasn't involved.

"Thanks Sparkie. Your place is…ah…pretty nice…" Timothy did not want to say that there were probably less squalid slums in the big cities.

"Well, it's not like we have a lot of resources to use out here," Matthew pointed out. "No metal, and it's not like we can go into town and buy amenities. What you see is what you get. You'll get used to it eventually."

"You talk about this like it's nothing. I don't know how I'm going to live like this!" Timothy cried, feeling the reality of this situation crashing down on him again.

Matthew put a comforting hand on Timothy's upper left shoulder. "Chris and I have had a year to get used to it. You have no choice but to do the same. If you don't, well…" He trailed off uncomfortably.

"Its fun, Matthew and I are even better friends since the change," Sparkie said, clearly unbothered by all of this.

"I ... just need some time to myself I guess," Timothy said dubiously.

"No problem. Why don't you take a seat, I'll get something to eat," Matthew said.

"Thanks, Bro." Timothy said.

Matthew left the house and Timothy sat down on Matthew's cot, one of the few surfaces he could sit on in the small hovel. He hung his head with a sigh. He felt that he'd never be able to go home. He was right.

His Pokémon, perhaps sensing his despair, managed to break out their balls. "Cheer up, Tim. Being this way isn't so bad. Besides, now that we're both so strong, we can train together," Bruno said comfortingly. Indeed, Bruno was one of Timothy's best trained Pokémon.

"I ... guess," Timothy said doubtfully.

"We're the same type now. It'll make training a lot more fun!" Bruce said, flexing his muscles.

"Maybe we can teach _you_ some moves now," Jackie said.

"Even if we can't, we have even more in common now," Chuck said.

Timothy cracked a feeble smile. "Yeah, that's true."

"They want water for a shower? I can give em' water!" Kame-sama said, moving his water jets to add to his point. Kame-sama had been with Timothy since he started his journey. Kame's advice and jokes always made Timothy feel better.

"I don't think the fire types would like that too much. Chris on the other hand...knowing him, if he's okay with being naked, he might like taking a shower with a water move," Timothy said. "Then again, I guess they do that already. Not like they can get running water or anything."

"Are we naked?" Ness asked.

"Well, no, you don't ... that is, you guys don't need to wear clothes. Yeah, Ness, you have your hat but,… Timothy said.

"Your friend is no more naked then we are," Ness said.

"Yeah I guess," Timothy said.

"You've always been there for us and we'll be there for you. No matter what happens, we can get through this," Kame-sama assured him.

"Thank guys. Bruce, Jackie, Chuck. I'd love to train with you guys but I don't want to underestimate my abilities and end up hurting you. But I feel the need to do something. Maybe I can lift boulders for them or do something else they need a powerhouse for," Timothy said.

"Don't worry too much," Chuck said.

"Okay, but let's not take it too far," Timothy said.

Timothy had only managed to get a little bit of sleep that night. He'd been restless and unable to relax his mind even with Ness' help. He spent most of the morning walking around the settlement and getting to know some of the locals.

Alexandra had been up in the early hours. Timothy had discovered that she'd become mostly nocturnal since becoming a Sneasel person. Apparently, the sunlight made her feel anxious and even uncomfortable to the point where it was painful to stay outside during the day.

As noon approached, Timothy found a clearing in the woods. He felt a need to train or at least do something useful. He brought Jackie, Chuck and Bruce with him. While he'd considered brining Ness with him to train, Timothy knew that since he'd become a fighting type, it would be dangerous.

He'd left Kame-Sama at Matthew's house. The Blastoise had informed Timothy that Chris needed him for something. Timothy wasn't sure what that was but had a feeling that knowing Chris, he was going to do something without thinking it through. _Well,_ Timothy thought, _at least they have a Nurse Joy._ He only hoped that neither the duo would need her services.

Upon releasing his three fighting types, Timothy flexed his muscles. Having four arms full of muscles to flex and so much muscle mass was disconcerting to Timothy. While the prospect of having such power appealed to him, he worried that without a release or some way to control it, he could hurt someone.

"Are you sure you guys want to do this?" Timothy asked.

"Yes," Bruce said.

"Don't hold back," Chuck said.

"We can take it. It's what we were born to do," Jackie said.

Timothy thought about for a few seconds. He knew the names of moves. He wondered if he'd know how to execute them.

"Okay Jackie, let's go around," Timothy said.

Bruce and Chuck took several steps backward while Timothy stood opposite Jackie.

"You trained me well. This should be interesting," Jackie said.

Timothy nodded. "Let's do it."

Jackie opened with a punch that Timothy recognized as a fire punch. He'd seen the move what felt like hundreds of time before. However, he'd never been on the receiving end of it. It was both painful from the impact of the punch and also the fire element to it! Timothy took several steps back and blinked his eyes. While he knew fighting would hurt, someone experiencing the pain first hand was a lot different then seeing it second hand.

Once he recovered, Timothy countered with a series of punches, using all fours of his arms to an advantage. He hit several times, feeling each impact. He worried he was hurting Jackie. However, when Jackie countered with a seismic toss that was literally Earth shattering enough to crack the ground beneath Timothy (the former human glad they were far enough from the village not to damage it), he knew that he didn't have to hold back.

Now, he was starting to see the allure of battling from a different perspective. It was exciting being able to deliver punishment when he could control it. However, knowing he could also bear the brunt of an equal amount of punishment was just as exciting as it added a risk to it. Now Timothy was starting to also understand the motivation behind the stunts stuntmen did.

Jackie's ability to keep up also made Timothy proud. It also boosted his ego a little. If Jackie preformed this well, Timothy knew he was a good trainer!

The two exchange several more blows before they stopped.

"That was amazing," Timothy said.

"You did great," Jackie said.

"I never knew how it felt for you guys. That adrenaline rush it's just... amazing... Care for a rematch?" Timothy said.

All three of his fighting types gave him looks of concern.

"Don't worry, I'll know when to quit," Timothy said.

"All right then, let's go," Bruce said.

- - -

After another hour, Timothy was bruised but felt satisfied He wondered if Chris or Matthew had tried battling. While he knew Furrets were not fighters, he also knew that Zangoose could easily handle a snake. Timothy wondered if Matthew had ever had to use that ability. Timothy was growing hungry and started wondering what sort of food they had in the village.

He recalled Jackie, Bruce and Chuck and started back towards the village when he heard something walk toward him.

Turning, Timothy watched as Chris walked up to him drenched head to toe with water and dripping it everywhere he went.

"What happened to you?" Timothy asked, trying his best not to laugh. Seeing a Furret hand covered in water from head to toe was an amusing sight.

Chris held up his right pointer finger. "Rule #26, Blastoise water jets are not to be used for showering."

Timothy chuckled. "You didn't!"

Chris shrugged his shoulders.

Timothy shook his head. "You *did*. I have to tell you, there's never a dull moment when you're around."

"Thanks, now if you'll excuse me..."

"By the way, Rule #26?" Timothy asked.

Chris held out his hands. "I'll explain later."

Timothy wondered what sort of mischief Chris was up to before shaking his head as he watched a sopping wet Furret man walk back towards the village.

A few minutes later, Timothy himself walked back to Matthew's house. Matthew had told Timothy that there was someone that he wanted Timothy to meet. While Timothy had met most of the villages population, there were still others he hadn't of met. Timothy wondered who it was as he walked back.

A little while later, Timothy was walking with Matthew.

"So, what was fighting like?" Matthew asked.

"It was exhilarating. I feel like I have to do something. I can't sit around doing nothing all day!" Timothy said.

"Well, just remember not to lose yourself. I mean, Chris is running around without clothes and getting into trouble. Sometimes, I think that somewhere, some legendary wanted him to be a Furret. I mean, the personality is an almost too perfect fit. Speaking of Furrets, there is someone I wanted you to meet," Matthew said.

"Someone else here is a Furret? Chris didn't mention him," Timothy said.

"He only arrived here a couple months before you did. I think Chris scares him a bit. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to see Chris having fun, but, sometimes I think he enjoys being this way too much," Matthew said.

"What's with the no clothes thing anyway? You still wear clothes? Without my pants, I'd feel indecent. Others wear clothes. Sure, maybe we can't see anything but, it seems weird," Timothy asked.

Matthew waved to the same Pikachu woman Timothy had seen before. In the centre of town, a Rapidash woman and a Charizard woman were playing chess.

"I think it unlocked a part of his mind that was already there but he'd kept hidden from us or it's one of those things where when we get older, we suppress," Matthew said.

Timothy chuckled. "Either that or he's just weird. Did you see what he just did?"

"I tried to tell him that a Blastoise water jets do not equal shower, but well, you know Chris," Matthew said.

"All too well," Timothy said with a smile.

The duo arrived at a house and Matthew led Timothy up to the door before Matthew knocked on it.

"Are you in there Brendon?" Matthew asked.

"Brendon?" Timothy asked. _Brendon __**Birch**__?_

"Yeah, is it someone you know?" Matthew asked.

"I'm... not sure." Timothy asked.

When the door opened soon after, Timothy saw a white Furret with black rings on his tail. He was wearing the same black and red outfit that Timothy recognized from a missing person poster he'd seen. The Furret even had the bandanna.

"Hey, Matt. Who's this?" Brendon asked.

"This is Timothy, he's a new arrival." Matthew said.

"I'd shake your hand but I dunno if I can trust me strength," Timothy said. He starts scratching the back of his head with his upper right hand. It was strange not feeling hair at the top of his head. "Sorry, that probably sounds egotistical."

"It's okay, I'm getting used to his too," Brendon said.

"Do you guys know each other?" Matthew asked.

"No, but I've met Brendon's father, Professor Birch, on my travels," Timothy said.

"My dad? Is he okay?" Brendon asked, walking outside.

"I ... yeah, he's fine. But, he's worried about you. Maybe there's a way we can tell him that you're all right," Timothy said.

"I don't know, he might think I'm a freak. I don't want to scare him. If I could only break the news to him before he saw me," Brendon said.

"What about Maybel?" Matthew asked.

"Seeing a humanoid Charizard? Geeze, I don't want to give him a heart attack!" Brendon said.

"I know, what about Jack?" Matthew asked.

"Chris' Spearow?" Timothy asked.

Brendon tilted his head. "I doubt he could fly me there. Maybe once he evolves. But there still that issue."

Matthew shook his head."No, no. What I mean is Jack can fly a message to Professor Birch, to tell him about what happened to Brendon. That way, there's less risk of someone catching one of us."

"That could work," Brendon said. "Even if I can't go home, I want him to at least now that I'm all right."

"You think Chris would be okay with that? I mean, it might be dangerous for Jack," Timothy asked.

"Well, Chris might rather go himself. But, I think we can convince him. Come on, let's go to his place," Matthew said.

"Assuming he's not crazy enough to ask a fire type to dry him off," Timothy said, rolling his eyes.

"Even he's not that crazy ... errs... I hope," Matthew said.

- - -

Minutes later, the trio was standing in Chris' house. Chris was standing while Alexandra helped to dry him of, concentrating on his tail. Timothy noticed that Chris or Alexandra had covered the windows, making it darker in the house

Timothy stroked his chin using his upper right arm.

"You're lucky to have a girlfriend. Must make things easier," Timothy said.

"Oh, we're not like that. Um, not really," Chris said.

Timothy had a feeling Chris would have blushed if he still could. A quick glance at Alexandra showed Timothy that she was wearing a shirt and jeans. However, despite that, Timothy could see that she made an interesting looking Sneasel. A part of him wondered if she and Chris had tried anything. However, he knew this wasn't the time to dwell on it.

"Chris, I ... well more Brendon but all of us needs to ask you a favor. Um, we need to speak to Jack for this one. Is he here?" Timothy asked.

"He's in his ball but I can get him," Chris said. His eyes went wide. "Oh no, you don't want to fight him do you?"

"No, no. Nothing likes that," Timothy said.

"Sorry, I'm a little protective of him. Dana is nervous of him. She knows about the problems Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu had with Spearow on their early days and she's worried that something similar will happen to between them," Chris said.

"I never met Ash but my dad did. Maybe Ash could help us somehow? He could get a legendary to restore us or something," Brendon said.

"I don't think it works that way. If they wanted to help us, wouldn't they have intercepted the asteroid or kept us away from it?" Chris asked.

"Maybe, I don't know. I don't think it works that way. This might be a test or something is going to happen to us and then they'll get Ash to help us," Brendon said

"I could help fight off the Rockets if they tried anything!" Timothy said.

"Whoa, whoa! Let's just get ahead of ourselves. What do you guys need Jack for?" Chris asked.

"We want him to fly a message to professor Birch," Matthew said.

"I, I dunno guys. Someone might capture him or a wild Pokémon might hurt him," Chris said.

"What if we ask him? Please, I just want my Dad to know that I'm all right. He's a Pokémon Professor. He'll take good care of Jack while he's there," Brendon said.

"I think we should leave it up to Jack," Chris said.

Alexandra stopped drying Chris' tail and he walked into another room of the house. When he returned a minute later, Jack was perched on Chris' right forearm.

"Hi, Jack," Timothy said.

"Jack, this is Timothy. It seems he's joined us," Chris said.

"Hi Timothy," Jack said.

Timothy blinked. It was strange enough being able to understand his own Pokémon. Understanding Chris' was somehow more unnerving.

"Jack, Brendon needs you to do him a favor. I know it sounds like a lot but it would mean the world to him," Timothy said.

"What is it?" Jack asked.

Brendon relayed the plan. Timothy wasn't sure Jack would accept it however he was hoping for a positive answer.

"Please Jack?" Timothy asked.

"I know it's risky. More risky then even if you and Sparkie wanted to have a match," Matthew said.

"But, it would be an interesting adventure. Will I get a chance to meet this Ash others have spoken of?" Jack said.

"You might want to be careful Jack. Ash has a Pikachu and this isn't an ordinary one. Not to suggest that there's anything wrong with other Pikachu," Chris said at Matthew glare. "Ash's Pikachu once had a bad encounter with some Spearow."

"Where does your father live?" Jack asked, looking at Brendon.

"He lives in Littleroot Town in Hoenn," Brendon said.

"I've never been there," Jack said.

"That's a long fight," Chris said.

"I know but ... please?" Brendon asked.

"He is a fellow Furret," Timothy said.

Brendon nodded.

"Well, it's up to you Jack," Chris said.

"Sounds like fun," Jack said.

"Just be careful. I don't want this to be the last time I ever see you again. It would break Whiskers' heart if you vanished... and mine too," Chris said.

"I'll be okay. Don't worry," Jack said.

"Thank you," Brendon said. Chris gasped when Brendon hugged him. "This means a lot of me. It will mean everything to Dad."

"You're welcome. Well, we'd better get writing this message," Chris said.

- - -

Twenty minutes later, the group was standing outside. Alexandra stayed inside due to her dislike of the sunlight. They had made a short message for Brendon's father and put it in a simple metal holder tied to Jack's right leg. Chris held Jack on his arm and petted his head. Whiskers were sitting on Chris' left shoulder.

"Don't stay away forever," Whiskers said.

"I'll come back, don't worry!" Jack said.

"Don't worry, Jack is strong. He'll be fine," Timothy said.

"Good luck buddy," Chris said.

"Thank you Jack," Brendon said.

Jack nodded and took off, flying into the air well above the settlement before heading towards Littleroot Town and vanishing into the day.

- - -

Two weeks later.

Jack had been successful in reaching Professor Birch's house. Upon receiving the message Birch had contacted Ash and his friends and asked them to find Brendon. The professor had attached a tracking device to Jack before allowing him to start the journey back home.

Ash was travelling with Misty. They were using a device to read the tracking device on Jack. While it would have been easier for Jack to accompany them. Given the potential for trouble between Pikachu and Jack due to the species, the group had elected to use the current method.

With the reading device in hand, Ash noticed something was wrong.

"It hasn't moved in a couple of hours, he must have made it back home safely," Ash said.

"Then we're almost there? I hope so, my feet are getting tired and I'm hungry!" Misty said.

"You wanted to travel light," Ash said.

"I didn't think it would take that long to get here!" Misty replied.

"They'll have food at their village. They must have something to have made it for that long," Ash said.

Jean Luc Pikachu, who was sleeping on Ash's shoulders, woke up.

He chattered a few phrases that Ash recognized as Jean Luc saying he was hungry.

"Don't worry Pikachu; I still have some food left. We're almost there anyway. Maybe they'll have food we call all eat," Ash said.

"I wonder if there are any water types. Would a Seel or Goldeen have legs?" Misty asked.

"There's only one way for us to find out. Gosh, the idea of a Pokémon shaped like us. Seems impossible. I wonder why the legendaries didn't tell anyone or do anything about this?" Ash said.

"Maybe this isn't real and it's just a Team Rocket trap?" Misty said.

"That's not funny! They wouldn't go that far to get Pikachu!" Ash said.

"Oh yeah? This is Team Rocket we're talking about!" Misty said.

Jean Luc's cheeks sparked. Ash understood enough of what he was saying to know that if this was a trap, he would help take care of any threat.

The duo continued to walk. It was getting later in the day and Ash was hoping to meet up with Brendon before sundown. Ash was curious what it would be like to stand close to a real live Pokémorph (as some would call them). The existence of such a creature seemed impossible yet Ash couldn't help but wondered if there was a reason for all of this. If the legendaries weren't doing anything to stop this, Ash wondered if they wanted people and Pokémon to understand each other better. Turning some people into hybrid creatures did seem one way to do that.

The tracker led Ash and Misty off of the path they were walking on and further into the woods. It was cooler in the woods as a result of the increased shade of the trees. The ground was rougher and less level, which only made Ash's already sore feet even sorer.

Jean Luc had to hold on tight as the duo walked down an incline. Ash didn't see any sign of a settlement. He knew they wouldn't mark it but wondered why the woods weren't thinning out.

"I think we're going the wrong way," Misty said.

"Yeah I think so to but this thing says that Spearow is over there. Unless something happened to him, we must be going in the right direction," Ash said.

Jean Luc shuddered at the mention of a Spearow. Ash, while still unsure if the species was trustworthy, didn't want to see anything happen to Jack.

"What if we're going in the wrong direction?" Misty asked.

"If we are then ... let's just try and not think about that," Ash said.

When they were nearing the location of the tracking device, Ash noticed that the trees in the area appeared as though there had been an incident in the past year or two. New trees were starting to grow, but the size difference next to the holder ones was clear evidence that something had happened.

"I wonder what happened here." Misty asked.

Jean Luc seemed upset. It was as though something was wrong and he knew it.

"What's wrong Pikachu?" Ash asked.

Ash slowed his pace. The tracker was beeping, indicating that he was almost on top of the tracking device.

"I found it!" Misty said.

Ash walked over to Misty and saw that she was picking up the tracker from the dirt. Jean Luc was growing more restless. Even Ash was starting to feel like someone or something was watching them.

"If it fell off, there's no way for us to know where the village is!" Misty said.

"Pika!" Jean Luc said.

Ash saw that Jean Luc was pointing to something just ahead of them. When he walked over to it, he saw that it was a small hole in the ground. Inside was a rock that almost seemed to be glowing. It was covered by dirt and leaves so it was hard to tell. Ash was tempted to dust it off but something held him back.

"I feel funny," Misty said.

Jean Luc jumped off of Ash's shoulders. He stood on the ground before Ash. Before Ash could say anything, his head started spinning. He'd almost fallen to the ground when Misty caught him.

"Thanks, I ... there's something wrong with your face!" Ash said.

"What are you talking about? That's not funny!" Misty said.

Ash was about to say something else when he heard Jean Luc make a sound as though he were in distress. His attention distracted from the beige fur that was growing on Misty's face, he turned to see that Jean Luc was lying on his right side.

"What's wrong?" Ash asked.

"Pika ... peek, I feel, Chu!" Jean Luc replied.

"Did he just talk?" Misty asked.

Ash was about to reply when he felt a tingling cover his back. He looked back at Misty to see that her ears were growing loner and becoming pointy!

Upon hearing a ripping, Ash gasped but also felt relieved. It was as though his shirt was confining something on his back. Now however, he felt wind on something was not skin.

"Ash, you ... you're you have quills like a Sandslash!" Misty cried.

Ash's mind reeled. If that was true then they were becoming like Brendon and the others! It seemed impossible! To hear of such creatures was one thing. Now he was becoming one!

"No, I ... this can't happen to me. To us!" Ash cried.

If Misty was changing to, Ash felt that she had to become the same species as he. If they were different, they might never be together. He couldn't stand that thought. To think it made his stomach burn and sent waves of nausea through him.

"Ash, help me!" Jean Luc cried.

Jean Luc was getting larger and thinner. If Ash didn't know any better (and given the things he'd seen over the years, he was willing to believe a lot) he's have sworn that Jean Luc was becoming humanoid.

"Ash!" Misty cried.

Ash turned just in time to hear a rip as the seat of Misty's shorts were torn apart by a beige tail! Misty had a tail! Ash didn't want to believe it! First her ears and face and now this!

"Guys, we need to get out of here before this gets worse!" Ash said.

Unfortunately, as Ash finished that statement, his hands and fingers began to tingle. Going to his knees, Ash watched as beige fur covered his hands. His eyes went wide with horror when he saw white claws appear at the base of his finger and grow over them.

Ash wanted to yell to the heavens hoping the Legendaries would help him. However, his voice wasn't co-operating. He felt his torso changing.

With so little effort that it was a joke (thanks to his new claws) Ash managed to rip his shirt off. It was then that he saw white fur sprouting all over his chest. Puberty may have promised him more hair down there but this was not what he expected.

Ash was about to tear his pants off. While he wasn't in a rush to be naked, he doubted they'd survive the growth of his tail.

The only thing that stopped him was Misty crying out. Ash looked at her and managed to make his way to her. She now had a short muzzle and her hair was gone. It its place were brown quills. Ash could see them pushing their way down her back.

This process was robbing Ash of the young woman Misty was becoming. He wanted to cry, not for his loss but for hers as well. He wasn't sure he wanted to admit it but and companion was now almost as tall as he! Jean Luc still had the fur, tail and ears of a Pikachu but his body shape was that of a human.

"Ash, is that you?" Jean Luc asked.

"Yeah, it's me Pikachu. You're speaking English!" Ash said.

"I ... I just know how now!" Jean Luc said.

If Ash wanted to keep his pants on, unfortunately, he would soon have no choice in the matter. He felt a stinging sensation at the base of his spine followed by something pushing at his pants. Acting on a strong desire for what he knew (but didn't want to accept) was his tail to be free, Ash sliced and slashed at his pants until they fell off of him around his legs, allowing his beige furred tail freedom.

The last and final step for Ash, his legs and feet followed quickly with help from Jean Luc (who was starting to stand up) Ash managed to get his shoes and socks off. As he felt his feet changing and his legs becoming furrier, he looked at Misty. She was watching her hands change.

"It's almost over," Ash said.

By the time Ash made to Misty, her hands were like his. "No, it _is_ over!" Misty said.

Misty slumped to the ground. Jean Luc managed to get over to her in time to help get her shoes and "Yes, I ... I know I'm naked but so are you guys! I'm just more used to it. By the way, my name is Jean Luc. I wanted to tell you guys that but I wasn't sure how," Jean Luc said.

"Jean Luc?" Ash asked.

Ash was the first to stand. He helped Misty up before helping Jean Luc up.

"Yeah, Jean Luc. Like the captain on Poke Trek."

Ash looked Jean Luc over. They seemed to be about the same age. If anything, Ash realized this made them closer. Although being opposing types would perhaps cause problems. Ash tried hard not to look Misty over.

"You might as well look at me," Misty said.

"You're still beautiful," Ash said.

"B- But--" Misty stammered.

Ash knew that he had to prove his words. Without another word, he walked over to Misty, put his arms around her and gave her a kiss.

"We still have to find that village. At least we'll fit in better now," Ash said.

"How will they know it's us?" Misty asked.

Ash pointed to his head. "I still have my hat. Come on, we'd better get going before it gets dark."

With that, the three headed in the direction they hoped the village was in. What would happen next, they weren't sure? However, they were confident that as long as they had each other, they'd be all right.

- - -

Jessie, James and Meowth were right behind the trio, pursing them as usual. They'd stopped in order to come up with a plan for capturing Pikachu, which had resulted in an argument. The argument had led to the usual personal insults and hitting before they realized that Ash and co. were a decent distance in front of them.

Jessie's face was red, and she was pointing at the ground continuously. "I told you just dig a hole, line it with something that electric attacks won't go through then the yellow rat is ours."

Meowth had been watching the show sitting with his back against a tree and his arms folded. As far as he knew, this was argument #817 (not that he counted or anything!).

He was the first to realize that they'd fallen behind.

As James suggested something involving a Marrowack and a slingshot, Meowth stood up. "I hate to interrupt your luv'as quarrel, but..."

The next few seconds were a blur of Jessie's angry voice, something striking Meowth's face and his view switching from the duo to the sky.

She appeared over him a few seconds later. "You may speak."

"I was tryin' to say, yous let the twerps get away!" Meowth said.

Jessie frowned and her face turned a deeper shade of red. If Meowth didn't know any better, he would have thought she was turning into a Charizard. _Her temper is certainly fiery enough_.

"No, **you** let them get away. Just look at what you did!" Jessie said.

"The boss is going to kill us!" James moaned.

Meowth sighed, stood up and pointed in the direction he was certain Ash and the others had gone.

He was taking up the rear soon after while Jessie and James argued about which one of them was responsible for falling behind. Meowth expected they'd blame him as was the custom.

They walked for a short distance before coming to an unusual sigh. Sitting on the ground were two piles of clothing. The trees around them appeared as though something destructive had happened.

Meowth ran up to one of the sets of clothes. He dares sniffing it.

"Yep, smells like twerp."

"Ewww, they're running naked!" James cried.

Jessie smacked James, which seemed to calm him down.

"What sort of disgusting game are they playing?" Jessie wondered.

Meowth noticed something in a hole by the clothes. He walked over to it and discovers that among dirt and other foliage was a rock at least three times his size. He wondered how much it would be worth.

He figured that once he lifted it out (or used the bumbling duo behind him to lift it) they could get it to a shop and sell it. \That would earn them their 2% cut.\

As soon as he climbed into the hole and touched the stone, he felt a panic build from within him. He jumped out of the hole as his body tingled and ached.

"Now what have you done?" Jessie asked her arms folded.

Meowth frowned.

"It's 'da twerp's clothes all right," he said.

While Meowth couldn't be sure, it seemed as though his companions (if he could call them even that) were getting smaller!

Jessie and James walked closer to Meowth and peered into the crater.

"A shiny rock, think of how much we could get for it!" James said.

"Meowth, pick it up!" Jessie said.

Meowth now felt dizzy and his stomach hurt. It wasn't Jessie and James getting smaller, the entire world around him was shrinking.

"I can't lift dat!" Meowth said.

Was his voice lower?

"Fine, we'll lift it but you're not getting your 1% fair share!" Jessie said.

"My head hurts," James said.

"Don't yous idiots notice somethin' strange?" Meowth asked.

"Don't tell me I have to lift it myself!?" Jessie complained.

She didn't get closer to the crater before her posture started to waver.

Meowth's eyes went wide when Jessie turned around. What looked like cream colored fur was growing on her face!

"Meowth how did you--?" Jessie asked, holding her head.

James fell to the ground, landing on his rear end with an undignified thud. Meowth say that pink fur was growing around the perimeter of James's face while beige grew in the centre.

"Um guys... I don't thinks dat's a normal rock," Meowth said.

When Jessie moved her right hand from her forehead, Meowth gasped. She had a charm just like Meowth's there! In fact, the color of her fur rang familiar.

"What's happening?" James asked as he looked at his hands, which now had beige fur on them.

Meowth was two thirds the duos height by now. He felt stronger and even more confident. He'd never found Jessie attractive. However, when her ears became like those of a Meowth and whiskers sprouted from her cheeks and forehead beside her charm, her found such feelings emerging.

"What are you looking at?" Jessie said.

She began to touch her face. Meowth estimated that Jessie's shriek as she felt fur was audible by everything within a 500 mile radius. He had to admit that her charm was not only big but it was shiny.

"A mirror, get me a mirror!" Jessie cried.

Meowth looked at James; his ears were larger and covered in pink fur. While Meowth couldn't see the rest of James' body, he didn't need to. He recognized the coloration of the fur as that of a Skitty! For a brief few seconds, Meowth wanted to see the rest of Jessie's body! The thought repelled him even though she was looking more ravishing by the second!

"I don't have a mirror! Don't you keep one in your pocket?" Meowth asked

"Why are you so big?" James asked.

Meowth watched Jessie stand on her knees and search through her pockets. He saw something pushing at the back of her pants! Not a second later, a tail not unlike his own emerged. It grew until it was a meter long and tipped with brown! It swished back and forth, conveying Jessie's annoyed state.

"You have a tail! You look like Meowth!" James said, pointing to Jessie's posterior.

Jessie looked at James and threatened him with her claws. Meowth saw what had happened to Jessie's pants happening to James'. This time a slender pink tail with a large bulbous ending with three antenna like protrusions. James reached back and gasped as he felt the tail. Jessie fished a mirror out and yelled.

"This is your fault Meowth, you did this to us!" Jessie yelled.

She stood up, helped (or more forced) James to stand up and faced Meowth who by now was their height with proportions closer to theirs (albeit without the clothes).

"It isn't my fault! It's DAT thing!" Meowth said, pointing to the asteroid. That didn't convince Jessie or James. "Okay, 'den its da Twerps fault! Let's get 'dem!" Meowth said.

Jessie and James looked at each other and nodded.

"That's the smartest thing you've said all week!" Jessie said.

With that, the trio headed away from the asteroid in search of Ash and the others.

- - -

Jean Luc was still unsure what to think. Before his eyes, Ash and Misty had turned into Sandslash! A ground type of all things! Jean Luc wasn't sure what to think of that! The trio had been walking only for a short amount of time and already Jean Luc was getting annoyed. He was used to sitting on Ash's shoulders, now he had to walk!

He was walking behind the two former humans. He noticed Ash constantly looking at Misty. He doubted Ash wanted her to know that. Jean Luc found these human rituals odd. Jean Luc saw Ash was obviously attracted to Misty yet he never said anything about it to her.

Jean Luc wondered if their lack of clothing would affect things. While Jean Luc never had to wear anything as what he could now call a normal Pikachu, he knew that humans wore clothes to the point of basing entire industries around them. Why they didn't just have fur Jean Luc never understood. However, he knew Ash enough that even if Ash wouldn't admit it, he was embarrassed about his state of undress.

"I wonder where the Rockets are." Jean Luc asked.

"What was that Pikach--err... Jean Luc?" Ash asked.

"Team Rocket, they're always following us. Why didn't they try to catch me when we were changing?" Jean Luc asked.

It still felt strange to use this language of the humans. When he'd changed, Jean Luc had felt knowledge pour into his mind. He knew how to speak English and he had a feeling, also how to read and write it. He didn't understand why humans needed so many words for a single object.

"I don't know. Come to think of it, that is strange," Ash said.

"Ash where you looking at me?" Misty asked.

"I um ... no, I ..." Ash went to rub the back of his head. Jean Luc ran over and grabbed Ash's hand.

"You got spines there remember?" Jean Luc said.

"Right, I know," Ash said.

Misty stopped walking and had had her hands on her hips. "Well?"

"I was just concerned for your safety," Ash said.

Jean Luc didn't think Misty would believe that. He noticed her looking at Ash and then at him.

"What?" Jean Luc asked.

"You make a cute Pikachu man ... Jean Luc," Misty said.

"Thanks ... I ... how do you guys put up with all this walking?" Jean Luc asked.

"You get used to it," Ash said.

Jean Luc detected something in Ash's tone. He wondered if Ash was upset with him.

"What's wrong Ash, you jealous?" Misty asked, winking.

Jean Luc saw that Misty was looking right at Ash. The former human boy looked at Jean Luc.

"No, I ... Pikachu and I are like brothers. He would never take you away from me," Ash said.

"Take me away? Do you like how I look now?" Misty asked.

Ash's quills quivered and he seemed to looking for some way to fidget. "Well, sure I guess so."

Misty frowned. "But I'm naked!"

She covered her chest and blushed.

"I'm naked too!" Ash said.

"So am I," Jean Luc said

"You're used to it! Please guys don't stare at me! My sisters will laugh at me! They'll get water types to attack me! All my Pokémon will never want a trainer that's a ground type!" Misty said.

Jean Luc elbowed Ash. "Give her a hug."

"But she just..."

"Ash, give her a hug!" Jean Luc said.

Jean Luc watched Ash inch toward Misty.

Ash looked at the ground and then at Misty's face all with an awkward grin as he fidgeted by running his hands together. Jean Luc shook his hands. It all seemed too simple to him. Ash was making it way too hard.

"Ash ... Wh-- What are you--?" Misty asked.

Ash didn't give her time to finish before drawing her towards him and putting his arms around her. He hesitated as he touched her quills. Fortunately, they didn't harm his arms. Jean Luc waited for Misty to return the gesture. To his elation she did moments later. Jean Luc was expecting the rockets to show up at any time to ruin the moment. His cheeks sparked at the idea. He hated bad guys that spoiled things for Ash and Misty.

"You okay Jean Luc?" Misty asked.

Jean Luc blinked and felt his cheeks stop sparking. He apologized and explained why he was agitated.

"Yeah, why didn't they interrupt? Something must be wrong!" Ash said.

"Don't tempt fate!" Misty said.

Jean Luc took one more look around before looking back at the duo.

"You guys feel better?" Jean Luc asked.

"I dunno I'm still a Sandslash. But, if we have each other I guess I can get used to it," Misty said.

"Maybe that village can get us some clothes. If um, you still want them that is," Ash said.

Misty gave Ash the evil eye. "Don't make me break out the mallet."

Ash's eyes went wide. "I'll be good."

Jean Luc shuddered at the thought of what her evil eye could do if she'd become a physic type.

"My feet are getting tired. Can we find that village now?" Jean Luc asked.

"Your feet, we just started walking!" Ash said.

"Yeah but I'm not used to it! Say, if you guys get clothes, can I try some on? I don't feel naked, but I wana see what the fuss is all about," Jean Luc said.

Ash shrugged his shoulders. "Fine with me."

- - -

Back in the village, life was going on as normal.

Brendon was wondering if his father had received his message. While Jack had returned and told Chris that he'd successfully delivered the message, Brendon still hadn't of heard anything.

He was walking with Peter, a teenager he'd met at the village. Although, teenager wasn't perhaps the best term to describe the person Brendon walked beside.

Peter had become a Gengar. Brendon would have considered it impossible that someone could have become a ghost Pokémon given that they were dead. Peter hadn't of died upon changing, so he hadn't of been something else in between being human and a Gengar. So far, Peter had been quiet about the details.

"Peter, I know you don't like to talk about why you become a Gengar but..."

"It's complicated," Peter replied.

"I've asked the others and they don't know. You've been here a month longer then me but they still don't know a lot about you. What happened to you?" Brendon asked.

Peter was silent and seemed content to float beside Brendon.

"What's it like?" Brendon asked.

"What do you mean?" Peter asked.

"What's it like being able to float and pass through walls and stuff. Do you age like that?" Brendon asked.

"I don't know I haven't been like this long enough. Sure it's nice being able to float and stuff but to become a ghost you have to..."

Brendon had a feeling he was starting to get at the core of the issue. As of yet, no one had questioned the idea of a humanoid Gengar. Perhaps, Brendon wondered, they'd been afraid to given the supernatural nature of them.

Swallowing, Brendon took a deep breath. "Did you die?"

Peter floated away as fast as he could. Brendon pursued Peter, running through the village and almost knocking over his fellow Furret Chris and Alexandra (who as it was dusk, was able to be out) as he ran by.

He caught up to Peter as they entered the woods.

"Please, I didn't mean to upset you," Brendon said.

Peter turned, appearing upset. "All right, it's true. I did die!"

"But ... how?" Brendon asked. "I mean, I know people die but how did you not ... pass on?"

"I was sick ... really sick. As in, a week to live sick. I didn't want to die in a hospital. I didn't want people to remember me like that or that to be the last thing I saw. I heard of people vanishing out here and wanted to find out what happened to them. I hoped it could help me or at least I'd die on an adventure rather than staring at a ceiling. Then I found the asteroid. I was in a lot of pain and collapsed on it. I felt something; you know what it feels like when it changes you. But I heard someone calling me," Peter said.

"Someone you knew that died?" Brendon asked.

"It was someone that sounded familiar yet I don't think I knew him. Then I thought I saw, you know ... the tunnel. Then there was a flash of light and I was floating but not above my body. I was like I am now! I'd become a ghost type!"

"Wow, that's ... amazing. Why didn't you tell anyone?" Brendon asked.

"I think they'd be afraid of me or ask me all this stuff about what happens when we die. I didn't want that kind of attention," Peter replied.

"Your secret is safe if you want it to stay a secret," Brendon said.

"I'd rather you keep it to yourself. Only Timothy knows. We met in a journey and became friends," Peter.

"I understand," Brendon said.

Peter floated higher and appeared to be seeing something.

"What is it?" Brendon asked.

"Someone's coming," Peter said.

"Who?" Brendon asked. He tried to hear or see them but couldn't.

"Two Sandslash, a male and a female and a male Pikachu. The male Sandslash has a cap on," Peter said

Brendon rubbed his chin. _Could it be them? But that would mean..._

"Which way?" Brendon asked.

He ran in the direction Peter pointed. The bushes brushed past him and twigs snapped under his feet. His was huffing and puffing them he came to the trio.

"Who ... who are you?" the male Sandslash asked.

Brendon looked at the cap, it was just like the one he'd seen Ash wear in news reports he'd seen about the boy.

"Wait a second, a white Furret... Brendon? Brendon Birch is that you?" The male asked.

Brendon nodded. "Yes! Did my father get the note? What happened to you guys? How come you're naked?"

"Whoa, slow down!" The male said.

"Sorry, I guess being energetic comes with being a Furret. Is that you Ash?"

Ash nodded. "Wow, it's really you!" Brendon took Ash's hand and began shaking it while being careful not to cut himself. "It's an honor to meet you! I can't believe I'm meeting you in person! You've always been a hero of mine!"

Misty looked at Brendon and shook her head. "I think Ash's ego is big enough as it is."

"Sorry," Brendon said as he let go.

"Yes, your father got the note from that Spearow. We were following a tracking device that your father put on him. Somehow it fell off right on that rock. The rock did this to us. We're naked because this tore our clothes to pieces."

"Fell off? That's weird. I hope Jack didn't do it on purpose!" Brendon said.

Peter floated down moments later. "I was watching you guys. You're the real Ash. Is that your Pikachu? You guys are Legendary!"

"It can't be. That thing can't change a Pokémon ... right?" Brendon asked.

"It can, and it did." Jean Luc said.

"By the way Brendon, this is Misty," Ash said.

"Misty, the Cerulean City Gym Leader Misty?" Brendon asked, feeling excitable again.

Rolling her eyes, Misty looked at Peter. "Is he always this excitable?"

"Well, you guys are famous and all. But, yeah, being a Furret has a way of doing that to you. Just ask my friend's friend about that. I mean, using a Blastoise water jet to take a shower!" Peter said.

Misty giggled. "He didn't!"

"Well, um," Brendon said with a grin.

Ash laughed. "I don't think you'll have to worry about us doing that."

Brendon giggled. "Why don't I take you guys to the village? There are so many people there that would love to meet you!"

Ash nodded and the group started walking towards the village with Brendon and Peter leading.

"Say, have you guys had any problem with Team Rocket?" Misty asked.

"No. Even if we start to, with you guys here, we'll kick their butts no problem!" Brendon said.

- - -

Meowth led the way; he was the smartest member of the trio, even if the others wouldn't admit it. Of course, he had no idea where they were going or were going to go.

They couldn't go back to base in their current state. Meowth expected that the boss would dissect them to find out how and why this happened. He would no doubt try to justify it by saying he wanted to make the organization even more powerful by making super soldiers.

Meowth however hadn't of lived through years of dealing with what he saw as Jessie and James' idiocy and abuse just for some scientist to dissect him like some experiment.

"Stop staring at me. This is embarrassing enough!" James cried.

Meowth wondered what the problem was now. He wanted to look back. However, he'd been feeling strange about Jessie ever since... this had happened to him. He felt something similar for her that he felt for the Skitty he'd fallen for, and for Meowsy. Her charm reflected the starlight just right. Even her eyes were the perfect shade of green.

"You became something girly. You've always been girly so that's funny!" Jessie said.

"At least I'm not in love with Meowth!" Jessie said

Meowth stopped dead in his tracks and turned around.

"I am not in love with Meowth! How could you even suggest that?" Jessie cried, hitting James with her hand.

"Stop it both of yous! Yous argue like an old married couple!" Meowth said.

"Old! I am not old! How could you say that! I don't have wrinkles! My hair is still full and Red!" Jessie said.

Meowth shook his head. "You're still beautiful! We get it!"

Jessie looked right at Meowth. He was still finding seeing her at eye level strange. Now they were equals! Or more so, they would treat Meowth as an equal or perhaps as their superior as he knew he deserved.

"You think I'm beautiful?" Jessie asked.

Meowth didn't want to admit it. He folded his hands behind his back while shuffling his right foot and looking at the ground.

"Do yous want me to?"

"No, that's disgusting! You're an animal! I can't...!"

"Meowth and Jessie sitting in a tree!" James started to sing.

Jessie struck him multiple times while Meowth cringed as he watched. He unfolded his hands, brought his right hand to the front and put up his right index finger.

"First of all, no more hittin! I hated it when you hit me and James dunn't like it eitha!" Meowth said.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have," Jessie said She stamped her feet as she cringed. "What am I doing? Why do I all of the sudden want to please you? Not one word James!"

Meowth wondered if Jessie liked him all along. Could, he wondered, her abuse have been her denial about it? Even if that wasn't true. They were the same species now. Meowth didn't doubt that such a change would do things to both of their minds.

"If you like me now, it's okay," Meowth said.

"No, it's not okay! I can't like you! I'd never hear the end of it! This has to be a trick! Someone is making us think this happening! When I find them, I'll hit them so hard, their *ancestors* will still be feeling it a century from now!" Jessie said.

"This isn't real? I'm not really a Skitty?" James asked.

Meowth considered it. While it was possible, he didn't know why anyone would do it. He wondered if the Twerps were using their friends do play a cruel trick Meowth shook his head, no, they couldn't get caught up in that sort of worry.

"It is real! You guys aren't human ... anymore! Maybe the same happened to da twerps! Maybe they knows how to reveroise this!" Meowth said.

He wondered if he **wanted** to reverse this. He could finally get respect and Jessie would care about him.

"He's right! They did this to us! They led us into that trap! That's why they left their clothes there! They're probably laughing at us!" Jessie cried.

"What if they take pictures and the boss sees it?" James asked, looking all around him.

"Don't worry Jessie; I won't let 'em hurt you!" Meowth said.

"Thank you Meowth. I ... arg!" Jessie said stamping her feet and throwing her arms into the air. She looked at James' shirt and then her own. "We're not even Rockets anymore!"

"You want to be naked?" James said.

Jessie grabbed the collar of James shirt and began shaking him. "This isn't funny! All of the work we did and the boss hate us! It's not like we don't try! Sometimes I think someone or something _wants_ those kids to win. It's like we can't even have one little victory!" Jessie let go of James and looked into the sky. "Would it hurt for us to win just once? All I wanted is some respect! We did all this hard work and devotion and this is what it gets us?"

Truth be told, Meowth hated seeing Jessie this upset. Before he might have felt that it served her right. However, he hated going to all that effort for nothing. Getting shocked and/or blasted repeatedly hurt! Having a boss constantly say they're failures all while he sat in a comfortable office made things even worse!

James was looking more panicked by the second. "Now he'll hunt _**us**_ down like he wanted us to hunt the twerps!"

"I won't let anythin' happen to yous!" Meowth said to Jessie.

"That should make me sick but I ... I believe you!" Jessie said.

"We can either stand here freakin out. Or we can try and get help. Why go back to da boss when our going back to da boss got us this?" Meowth said.

Jessie looked down at her shirt. With a single motion of her claws, she tore it down the centre of the large R and cast the shirt aside.

"To Hell with him. If I see him again, if he calls me a failure again, or says I'm ugly compared to his Persian then I'll... I'll..."

Meowth ran over to Jessie, putting his arm around him. He flexed his claws and grinned. "We'll both slice him so much that his scratches' scratches will have scratches."

For the first time since they'd changed, Jessie cracked a smile. If anything, James looked jealous

"Now let's find the twerps and demand to know why they did this to us!" Meowth said.

James started tugging at his shirt. "I wanna get rid of it too!" he said.

Jessie rolled his eyes, readied a claw and did the same to his shirt as she'd done to her own.

"Like a hot knife through butter," Meowth said.

With Meowth leading, the group resumed walking. It was getting darker and colder. Meowth could hear bug types that only came out at night lurking in the bushes.

He felt confident that he could keep Jessie and James safe. They walked for another twenty minutes before Meowth saw flicking lights that looked like they came from either torches or the tail of something in the Charmander line. Meowth hoped for them to be the former.

They walked towards the lights until they came to what appeared to be a small village. Meowth's eyes went wide when he saw other humanoid Pokémon lurking about.

"The twerps must be here!" Meowth said.

"There are others?" Jessie asked.

"We can't tell them who we are!" James cried, cringing.

Meowth walked into a street and saw something that almost made him feint. Standing before a house was two humanoid Sandslash, one of the largest Machamps he'd even seen, a humanoid Furret a Gengar and a Pikachu! Meowth could recognize the scent of the twerps from the group. He could only guess that Sandslash wearing the hat was Ash. That meant that the Pikachu had to be the same Pikachu Meowth and the others had pursued for all of these years! Meowth's flight instinct was trying to kick in! He had no idea how powerful any of them could be. No doubt, the last thing a group of Pokémorph wanted to see was member of Team Rocket.

Meowth walked back to the duo and whispered.

"I think da twerps are Pokémon two. I see two Sandslash and one of em is wearing the head twerp's hat! There's even a Pikachu there!"

"We can still capture them!" James said.

"Are you nuts? With all those others to back them up! This time they'd put us into orbit!" Jessie said.

"We have to tell dem da truth," Meowth said.

"I hate to say this but I agree," Jessie said.

James hung his head. "Okay, okay."

"Let me talk first," Meowth said.

Meowth walked back into the streets intending to be the one to break the news. He hid behind a bush close to the group in order to hear them talk.

"It's an honor to meet you. I wish I could shake your hand but it might not be good for either of us," the Machamp said.

"I'm sorry this happened to you guys," the Furret said.

Ash put his arm around the Pikachu. "At least we can be even better friends now."

"I keep expecting Team Rocket to show up," the female Sandslash said.

Meowth decided to make his appearance. He stood up and approached the group.

"You expected right," he said.

Everyone in the group turned to face him. The look at Ash's face was astonishment. Pikachu's cheeks began to spark. Meowth didn't like where this was going and held out his arms, in the New York position, properly enough.

"We don't want a fight. We found yer clothes and then, this happened to us!" Meowth said.

"How do we know you're really Meowth and not someone pulling a prank?" Ash asked.

"How do _**I**_ know you're not really someone pretendin to be da twerps?" Meowth said.

Ash rolled his eyes. "That's Meowth all right. But where are..."

Meowth looked back in the direction of Jessie and James and called their names. He watched them both walk up to his position.

"That's the Jessie and James?" the Machamp said.

"You're a Meowth? You two make a cute couple!" The female Sandslash said.

"Not now, Misty," Ash said.

"You? The water trainer twerp? You became a ground type?" Jessie asked.

The Furret leaped between the group, allowing Meowth to see that his coloring was different then a standard Furret. He was mostly white with the exception of his rings.

"Stop it! We don't want a fight! Look, I know you guys hate each other but I didn't want this to happen!"

"Who are yous?" Meowth asked.

"Brendon Birch," the Furret replied.

"If you guys want a fight, I can give you one. I'd love to take on the team Rocket. Especially with the Ash and Misty to back me up!" the Machamp said.

"Tim, no! People might get hurt and stuff damaged!" Peter said.

"Okay then, why did yous do this to us?" Meowth asked.

Misty stamped her feet and folded her arms. "We didn't, that rock did!"

"It's been there for more than a year now. It changed everyone here," Timothy said.

"Great, so we're stuck like this?" Jessie said.

"Is that so bad?" Meowth asked.

"No, but..."

"Wait, you guys like each other now?" Misty asked.

Pikachu's cheeks we're still sparking. "Isn't this where I shock them?"

Meowth, Jessie and James jumped.

"He can talk?" Meowth asked.

"Yes, I can talk. _**You**_ could _always_ talk, what's the big deal?" Jean Luc asked.

"So, what do we do with them?" Misty asked.

Meowth pleaded with the group, explaining how they couldn't go back. Jean Luc's cheeks stopped sparking as he appeared to understand.

"I don't trust them," Misty said.

"True but we can't just leave them to fend for themselves," Ash said.

"If we get someone to keep an eye on them, we might be okay," Peter said.

"We'll have to speak with the others but for tonight, it should be okay," Brendon said.

"Just don't try to capture me. I can still shock," Jean Luc said, making his cheeks spark to show he meant business.

"Just don't hurt Jessie and we'll behave," Meowth said.

"What about me?" James cried.

Meowth rolled his eyes ", or James."

"This is being ... interesting," Ash said with a grin.

Meowth had a feeling things would be interesting for all of them.

- - -

A week later.

In the makeshift Pokémon centre, Evergreen and Maybel studied blood sample that Ash, Misty and Jean Luc had provided.

They'd be studying the effects of the asteroid every since it has effected them. Fortunately for the trio, they'd managed to obtain records from other centres for Jean Luc.

Evergreen peered into a powerful microscope which was connected to several computers.

"I've studied his original DNA in comparison to his current DNA. The results are ... curious. Take a look at this Maybel," Evergreen said.

Maybel maneuvered over to the microscope and looked in it.

"It's definitely been altered as the rest of our DNA and cellular structure has been altered. Although his current form is evidence enough of that," Evergreen said.

"We've studied radiation coming from the asteroid but it's at negligible levels," Maybel said.

Evergreen nodded. "Something from it has to have caused this. One thing's for certain, we've studied the cells all over his body. This asteroid has altered all of them. We also asked the female Pikachu. What was her name, oh yes Dana. I compared samples from her to these ones and the part of the DNA that determines species is the same."

"We know she's not human any more but what does this mean about reversing ... this? It's been more than a year now. I'd like to be able to go home and change back if possible. If that asteroid can change us like this, why can't it change us back?" Maybel asked.

"Perhaps the more pressing question is why would it have a similar effect on two different species?" Evergreen started pacing around the room, making sure not to trip over Maybel's tail. "If anything I would have expected it to change human into Pokémon or vice versa. Is it an experiment to create a new hybrid species such as ourselves?"

Maybel looked up and over at the professor. "Why would someone or something do that? Are they going to capture us all and dissect us like common lab animals?"

"I think there's another question here," Evergreen said, "Why would they bestow us with the abilities of the species whose hybrid we've become? Certainly they know we can defend ourselves."

"I'm curious as to what would happen if two of a different species attempted to mate? Would an offspring be the same species as one of the parents or a hybrid?" Maybel asked, "However, I've already met a man and we're the same species."

"The mental effects this has had on some are curious to say the least," Maybel said.

"Where is Jake anyway?" Evergreen asked.

"He's flying around somewhere He says that he likes the view. It's curious. Before this, he was afraid of flying but now he loves it and wonders how he got by without it. I'm not sure he will want to go back if we find a way to restore him," Maybel said.

Evergreen looked at his green scaled arms. The feather like protrusions on his wrists felt as part of him as anything else now. He looked at Maybel's red scaled arms, the skin somehow suited her.

"Would you want to change back?" Evergreen asked.

Maybel sighed. "I don't know I'm strong like this and from what we've seen my lifespan would be longer. I've love to see if a Ninetales could live a thousand years in this form. I'm sure a lot would be willing to trade their humanity for such longevity."

Evergreen rubbed his chin. "Not to mention the power and beauty."

Maybel looked at Evergreen and grinned. "Why thank you. I mean, I know you were thinking of the Ninetails when you said that but I noticed you looked at me and smiled.

"You're welcome Maybel," Evergreen said.

"I wonder what controls the species. If we could find that out..."

"Someone else might find a way to abuse it. I hate to picture one of us using our abilities for evil," Evergreen said.

"Well, the worst Chris has done with my abilities is roast marshmallows so I think we're safe," Maybel said.

Evergreen laughed. "I think he's more a danger to himself then others."

Maybel giggled then looked at a monitor. "Do you suppose a rock type like us would have blood?"

"That's a good question," Evergreen said.

"Professor, I hate to say this but I can think of only one way to figure out how this works," Maybel said.

Evergreen walked over to a table and took a sip of water from a glass. When he finished, he sighed. "What's that?"

"We'd need a volunteer. I mean, human or Pokémon. If we could study samples, x-rays, everything from before and after, maybe even during, it might go a long way to finding a cure for those that want one," Maybel said.

Evergreen nodded his head. "The question is finding one."

"Chris has his Spearow and Rattata. Matthew has his Pikachu," Maybel said.

Evergreen looked out a nearby window. "Sparkie has told me that he's happy as he is. He's been adamant about that. However, it would be useful to have another Pikachu. Perhaps Chris' Spearow might be willing. It would be interesting to see how it affected a bird."

"Timothy has several Pokémon that haven't changed. Maybe one of them would be interested." Maybel said.

Evergreen nodded. "However, we must make it clear that this is not a game. This would almost be like infecting someone with a virus so we can study how it works in hopes of developing a cure."

Maybel hung her head. "Or getting someone to volunteer to let us use a weapon against them to see how it hurts them."

Evergreen walked over and raised Maybel's head. "Even knowing the effects of both would be non lethal it still raises ethical issues. Don't be ashamed of it though. Sometimes the road towards getting the answers is a difficult one."

The dup heard someone land of the roof moments later. They both ran out and looked up to see that Jake had landed on the centre's roof.

"Jake, what is it? What did you see?" Maybel asked.

"I saw three people approaching the asteroid!"

Evergreen and Maybel looked at each other.

"This could be an opportunity but we can't use unsuspecting innocent people like this. We need to warn them," Evergreen said.

"Jake, did you see who they were?" Maybel asked.

"It was an adult and two kids," Jake said.

Maybel rolled her eyes. "We need more than that."

Evergreen heard someone approach from behind. He saw that it was Ash, Misty and Jean Luc.

"What did they look like? How old were they?" Ash asked.

"You guys don't want more samples do you?" Jean Luc asked.

"Don't worry, we're fine with what we have," Maybel said.

Jake landed between Maybel, Evergreen and Ash and turned to face Ash.

"Sorry, the adult was a guy. He looked in his mid to late twenties. The kids were a girl and boy. I think the boy was eight to ten and the girl ten to twelve," Jake said.

"Oh no," Ash said.

"What's wrong?" Evergreen said.

"Did the guy happen to have squinty eyes?" Ash asked.

"I think he did. How did you know, you're not a psychic type," Jake said.

"We need to get over there, now!" Ash said.

- - -

Meanwhile, Brock, May and Max, having gone in search of Ash and the others were walking through the woods.

After hearing the tale of the village filled with humanoid Pokémon, Brock had wondered if there were any that wanted to be his girlfriend. He couldn't how they would reject him. He used to be a gym trainer! In his mind, no one could resist that!

"What if it's dangerous there?"

There was a quiet in the area of the woods they were entering. Brock wondered if someone was about to attack them. He also wondered if they'd stumbled upon Ash and the other or possibly a girl that would like him.

They came to a group of trees and bushes where some were singed and others were re-growing.

"I wonder what happened here." May asked.

"Perhaps a violent battle or an impact of something," Max said.

"Maybe some girl needs us to rescue her!" Brock said.

"Are girls all you think about?" May asked.

"No, I only think about them 23 hours and 59 minutes a day! That's not that much!" Brock said.

The trio came to a small hole in the ground.

"I wonder what's inside." Max said.

"Max wait!" May said.

May was unable to restrain Max before he climbed into the hole and began brushing dust and leaves off of a rock that was at the centre of the hole.

May run to the side of the hole. "Is that thing glowing?"

"It's pretty! I wonder if I could get a piece of it to give to a girl." Brock asked.

May was about to say something when Max screamed.

"My arms!" Max yelled.

May jumped into the hole and grabbed Max, dragging him out of it. She looked at his arms to see that the skin on them was looking dry. In fact, it was looking more than dry. It was turning a yellow color and getting rougher, almost like sandstone.

"What's happening to him?" May asked.

"I don't know but we'd better get out of..."

Brock was unable to finish the sentence before he felt a sharp pain in his back. He yelled out, sweat dripping down his face as the back of shirt tore with the appearance of two pair of green wings, each a meter long! These were not the wings of a bird or dragon but the wings of an insect!

"What's happening to me?" Brock cried. He didn't want to hear the answer but couldn't ignore the situation either.

"You have wings!" Max said.

By now, Max's arms were completely covered in the sandstone like shell. Now it was May's turn to yell as she felt an itch and saw beige fur sprouting all over her hands and arms.

"No, I just shaved them this morning!" May cried.

"I...I th...think that's the least of our concerns at the moment," Max said.

Max was shaking, which made Brock feel even worse. He wasn't sure what he was becoming. He had a feeling he didn't want to know.

"Maybe we should get away from that thing!" Brock said.

"Wh...What are those?" Max asked.

He staggered over to the bundles of clothing that Ash and Misty had discarded by the asteroid. Tears began to fall from his eyes. Brock ran to help only to fall flat on his face as his legs began to reshape into a digitigrades stance. He could only watch in horror as the skin on his arms turned a green color.

At first his thumbs appeared to be getting longer. However, Brock saw the terrifying truth when his fingers began to shrink into his hands. In their place, a grown developed from his now inhumanly long thumbs that looked like a blade.

"A Sc...Scyther!" Brock said upon recognition.

May had managed to get to Max.

"My back!" Max cried.

May look to see that something that pressing at the seat of Max's shorts.

"It hurts!" Max yelled out.

"I can't take your pants off!" May said.

Something was pushing at the back of May's skirt. She reached back with a look of anger on her face.

"Brock, are you--?" She asked.

"I don't have hands anymore! I have swords!" Brock cried.

"Then what's pushing my skirt up?" May asked.

She felt around until she made contact with a furry tail. She felt her hands touch the tail. It was warm and soft. Most of all it was *hers*.

"I have a tail!" May sobbed.

Max was in tears by now and clawing at his shorts. "I can't take it anymore!"

He managed to push them down what were now armored legs of a yellow stone like shell with his shorts off, his tail, was able to grow. It had the same yellow shell on top with white fur on the bottom.

Max turned onto his back, allowing May to see that the top of his face had the same shell and his jaw had white fur. His glasses fell off when his ears retreated into his skull only to reappear as two triangles at the top of his head.

Brock meanwhile was not faring any better. His pants was torn to shreds when a tail like segment was grown from the bottom of his torso and two large spikes was emerged from his thighs. Although his shirt was intact, Brock could see that his torso was no longer human but a segmented torso of a Scyther. His insides felt like jelly and his bones felt as though they no longer existed. He remembered that insects had an exoskeleton. If his stomach wasn't reforming, it would probably have been turning at the concept.

"No girls will want to date me now! This isn't fair. What did I do to deserve this?" he said.

May, who was now on her back holding her long ringed tail, was crying furious tears. "What did you do? What did *I* do? I'm turning into a Sentret or a Furret!"

"Judging by the shape of your ears, I would say a Furret," Max said.

"What about my ears?" May said.

She reached up to the top of her head and felt that her ears had become long and pointy. Her human hair was still intact, although her face was fur covered and she seemed to have a muzzle.

Brock stood up on his new legs. His shoes had torn when his toes had merged into three long and sharp claws like toes. He looked at his former hands and shook his head.

"This can't be real, I'm a monster!" he cried.

May managed to stand up. Her skirt was impossible to wear so she slid it down her legs. She kept her shirt on however.

"You're a monster? I have to walk around half naked around my brother! It's disgusting, it's wrong!" she cried.

"May I ... I'm scared!" Max said.

Max stood up and looked at his arms and hands. His hands no longer had fingers but three white claws. His human hair still had upon his otherwise armored head.

"I'm a San... Sandshrew! I don't know how to be a Sandshrew! What am I supposed to do? "Max asked.

Brock gasped when he heard footsteps and bushes moving.

"Someone's coming! I can't let them see me like this!" Brock cried.

"Who's there?" May asked.

May grabbed her tail and held it tight out of fear. Max ran over to May and held onto her, shaking. His fear instinct took over when he saw a humanoid Pikachu approach them. He let go of May and curled up in a ball, feeling that his armor would protect him best that way.

Two humanoid Sandslash entered the area seconds later.

"Oh no, we were too late!" the male one cried.

"Who are you? Wait that sounded like Ash!" May said.

"May, is that you?" Ash asked.

May looked at the Sandslash and gasped. What had happened to her, Brock and Max was impossible in her mind. Now, she was a talking Furret walking around naked. Her mind started to race.

"No, this is impossible. It can't be happening! This isn't real! I'm not a Furret! Max isn't a Sandshrew and Brock isn't a Scyther! Come on, wake up! Maybe if I scream loud enough, someone will wake me up!" May said.

"This is a dream? I'm not really a bug?" Brock said.

"Brock, is that you? I know you were a pest but isn't this bit much?" Misty asked.

Max, having heard familiar voices uncurled and looked up at Ash and Misty. Acting out of instinct, he rushed over to Misty and grabbed onto her.

"Max, what are you doing?" May asked.

"A Sandslash is the evolution of Sandshrew. It makes sense he'd see one as someone to protect him," Jean Luc said.

"But he's **my** brother! Who are you by the way?" Max asked.

"I'm Jean Luc. You know me better as Ash's Pikachu."

"This is a dream ... it's a dream, it's not real," May said.

"I hate to say this but it's real. Anyway, you're not the only Furret in town," Ash said.

May let go of her tail. "Ash this isn't a good thing! Why did it have to be a Furret?"

"I know of at least two people that would ask what's wrong with being a Furret," Ash said.

"What about me? I'm a freak!" Brock said.

"Brock, just relax. You'll be fine. There are others who lost their hands because of this. Just look at his and Max," Ash said.

Ash, Misty and Max all showed Brock their hands.

"Anyway, you still might meet a girl that likes insects," Misty said.

"Can we go somewhere where no one will see us? I'd like to meet these other Furrets," May said.

"And I'd feel safer around shelter," Max said.

"And me where no one can see me," Brock said.

"The village is right this way," Jean Luc.

With that, Ash led the way as the group started back towards the village whose population was about to once again, increase.

- - -

When the sun was setting, Chris walked with Alex towards Tim's house. Whiskers were sitting on Alex's right shoulder and Jack was flying overhead.

"Are you sure he'll be okay with it?" Alex asked.

"Sure, Ness loves baseball," Chris said.

"No, I mean, will Tim be okay with it?" Alex asked.

Chris nodded. "We can leave him a note if Ness says it's all right."

When Chris reached Tim's house, he knocked on the door and called Ness' name. Ness responded and opened the door for Chris moment later. Chris walked in and saw that Ness was reading some books in the living room.

"Hey, big guy. Want to go for a walk and play some catch?" Chris asked. Ness looked up from the book he was reading. "Unless you're busy of course."

"No, I could use a break."

Chris beamed. "Great, come on, let's go!"

Chris had been waiting to play catch with Ness for some time. Ness walked toward Chris and allowed Chris to lead the way out of Tim's house. In his excitement, Chris forgot to leave the note.

Outside, Chris ran over to Alex. "All right, let's go. There's a field about a twenty minute walk from here. It'll be nice to get away for a little while."

"I could use some fresh air. I can't get out much ever since this happened to me. I miss the sunlight," Alex said.

"I'm sure they'll find a way for it to not hurt you," Chris said.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Alex said.

The group began to walk and was soon in the woods. Chris led the way with Ness just behind him. When they been walking for fifteen minutes, Chris turned back to see that Ness looked worried and that Alex was a fair distance behind him. Chris stopped to let the others catch up to him.

"What's wrong?" Chris asked.

Ness looked around. "I feel as though someone is watching us."

Jack landed on Chris' right shoulder, causing him to jump. "Ack!"

"Gotcha!" Jack said.

Chris looked at Jack and then shook his head "Yes, you did."

Ness glared at Jack. "That was not what I meant!"

"Well, I don't see anyone around. Maybe there's a Rattata that wants to be friends with Whiskers?" Chris asked.

Alex caught up to the group a few seconds later. "What's this about a friend for Whiskers?"

Chris shrugged his shoulders. "Ness thought that someone was watching us. Maybe it's a Pokémon that's interested in one of us."

"I hope you don't mean as food!" Whiskers cried.

Chris picked Whiskers up and petted her, holding her close to his chest. "Don't worry; I wouldn't let anyone eat you."

"Well, how far is this field? I may like the dark now but I know you guys don't like it as much," Alex asked.

"We're almost there," Chris said.

"I'm sorry I had to make you guys wait until it was getting dark," Alex said.

"Don't worry about it. I'm just happy we can do something together," Chris said.

The group resumed walking and found the field a few minutes later. Chris, Alex and Ness stood in a triangle with Whiskers sitting back on Alex's shoulder and Jack on Chris'.

They threw around the ball for a few minutes, Chris noticing Ness would sometimes catch it in his mouth and other times use his psychic abilities to hover it a few centimeters in front of him.

It was dark out with the moon shining overhead. Alex seemed to be more energetic but Chris was growing tried (impossible as that seemed to the others).

"Well, I guess we should be heading back. Unless you guys want to go back. Alex, if you want to stay out, I can stay with you," Chris said.

Alex looked up at the moon and the stars. "I wouldn't mind some company."

Chris, who was holding the baseball in his right hands, threw it in the air and caught it as it fell back down. "What sort of company?"

"Depends, are you afraid of the dark?" Alex asked

"Oh boy," Ness said.

Chris chuckled. That sounded like something he would say.

Alex shrugged her shoulders. "Okay, not the best one but it's the best I could come up with."

"I shall return home and allow you guys some privacy," Ness said.

Unfortunately, before Ness could go anywhere or ask Whiskers or Jack if they wished to return with him, there was a rustling nearby.

Alex looked back and forth. "What was that?"

Ness' eyes glowed for a split second. "Oh, no."

Chris looked back and forth. He felt a chill run down his spine. The last he wanted to do was to fight or have someone spot them and risk exposing the village.

From what seemed like all directions, the group heard the footsteps of men approaching them. Before anyone knew what was happening, they were surrounded by 12 large men wearing Team Rocket uniforms.

"You will come with us," one of them said.

For the first time in he didn't know how long, Chris' lack of clothing had him feeling exposed. They'd seen him and Alex. For all Chris knew they knew of the village and were attacking it!

"What do you want?" Alex asked.

"We are not going with you!" Chris said.

The lead Rocket walked close enough to Chris that they were mere inches apart.

"And what are you going to do to stop us? You're just a weak little Furret. However, if you'd like a fight." The man stepped back and released a Charizard and a Flareon. "I can arrange one for you."

"Two verses one?" Isn't that against the rules?

"I want to help!" Jack said.

"I can't let you fight against them!" Chris said.

Ness leapt in between Chris and the man. "I can hold them off. You two run!"

"What? No, Tim would never forgive me if I just left you here!" Chris said.

"Then I'll fight them!" Alex said.

"What?" Chris asked

Alex walked up to the man. "I'm a dark type, and it is dark out. The question is, are *you* afraid of the dark?"

The man laughed. "Do you think I'm going to let you scare me with bad clichés? But, if you want to get fried." the man looked at the Charizard, "Fry her."

The Charizard nodded and unleashed a flamethrower in Alex's direction.

"No!" Chris yelled. "Jack, run!"

Chris tried to tackle the man only for his Flareon to unleash a flamethrower of its own Chris felt a terrible wave of heat as the flames struck him, sending him flying to the ground.

He saw Alex getting up and Whiskers running over to him. "Whiskers take Ness and get out of here. We're the ones they want."

"Oh we'll be happy to take the others as well," the man said.

"Back off!" Ness said before letting loose with a psybeam that hit the Charizard.

Chris struggled to get up just in time to see Whiskers use a hyper fang against the Flareon that she stopped off with a tackle Ness followed with a tackle that knocked the Flareon out.

The Charizard looked angry and was bruised from Ness' attacked. He flew into the air. Chris had a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach of what was coming.

"That'll only get one of us. You'll still have three others to take out," Chris said.

The man smiled and looked back at his companions. In a matter of seconds, there were four other opponents, a Persian, Venusaur, Executer and Arbok.

_Where's Matthew when I need him?_

Before Chris could further react, the Charizard slammed into the ground where Whiskers was standing, sending her flying into unconsciousness.

"Whiskers!" Chris yelled. "You son of a bitch... Ness, kick his ass!"

Chris looked at the Charizard and used Follow Me. "That's right. I'm the only one you want."

The Charizard ran to tackle Chris. Chris dodged and used Slam on the Charizard.

"Come on, let me have it!" Chris yelled.

The Charizard yelled and was about to fry Chris when Ness fired another Psybeam, hitting the Charizard and knocking him out.

Chris ran over to Whiskers to make sure she was breathing. He was relieved when he saw that she was.

"Four against three. My friend, the odds don't appear to be in your favor."

"Four against four!" Ness yelled.

Out of what felt like nowhere, Jack dove down from the sky, slamming into the Persian. The cat flew several feet and landed with a grunt.

Chris looked to his shoulder, totally surprised that Jack wasn't there. He then looked at Ness.

"How did you...?"

"Timothy trained me well," Ness said.

The Persian stood up and appeared Angry. "All right, how about this. You and the Sneasel verse me and my Venusaur friend?"

Chris, acting more on adrenaline then reason, looked at Alex, who nodded her head. Chris nodded his head.

The Venusaur stepped into the battle and struck first, hitting Alex with its vine whip. Alex countered with a quick attack. While she hit, the Persian also hit and managed to retaliate with a Bite attack that caused Alex to yell out in pain. Unfortunately, the Persian took the opportunity to hit her with a Slash attack that sent her to the ground and into unconsciousness.

"Dammit, no!"

Chris ran to Alex's side, hoping to wake her up or to carry her out of there. Unfortunately, his distraction was enough for the Venusaur to hit Chris with a sleep powder attack. As everything went blurry, Chris heard the Venusaur comment saying he had it easy. The last thing Chris saw before passed out was the Persian and Venusaur walking towards Jack and Ness.

- - -

Timothy walked down the darkened path leading up to Matthew's house. When he'd gone home, Ness hadn't of been there and Timothy was worried that someone had taken him as it wasn't like Ness to run off.

As he approached Matthew's house, Maybel walked by him.

"Hi, Maybel. This may sound strange but have you seen Ness anywhere? He wasn't home when I got there and I'm worried something's happened to him."

"I think I saw Chris and Alex with him a couple of hours ago," Maybel said.

Timothy frowned. "What? Chris took Ness without asking? Why would he do such a thing?"

"I don't know, I think they were going for a walk or something," Maybel said.

"I'm surprised he didn't want to roast more marshmallows over your tail. Seriously, doesn't that get annoying after a while?"

Maybel nodded her head. "Yeah, it does get annoying. Tell him that if he wants a fire, he can build one of his own."

"I'll do that, thanks," Timothy said

Maybel walked off and Timothy resumed walking. When he arrived at Matthew's house, he knocked on the door. Matthew answered a minute later.

"Hey Bro, what's up?" Matthew said.

"Hey, have you seen Chris or Ness? Apparently, Chris took Ness for a walk or something without asking," Timothy said.

"No, I haven't. It's awfully late for them to be out. I hope they're okay," Matthew said.

"Yeah, so do me, so I can wring Chris' neck for taking Ness without asking!" Timothy said.

"Whoa, relax! I'm sure Chris meant well. He just gets excited about things and sometimes he does things without thinking," Matthew said.

"He's twenty six years old, not _**six**_. He knows better than that," Timothy said.

"Yes but he's also a Furret or at least _part_ Furret now. Just like you feel a need to use your muscles a lot more often now, he has his own problems," Matthew said.

"I know but it's annoying..."

Timothy was unable to finish before he felt a headache come on. Images and thoughts assaulted his mind. He saw a large group of Rockets attacking Ness, Chris and the others. He felt the pain from attacks against Ness when one of the rockets released a haunter and a Gastly and sent both against Ness in an act of poor sportsmanship and cowardice.

When the images ceased, Timothy was crouching and had a sizeable headache.

Matthew was standing up, having been knocked down by that image, and rubbing his head

"Did anyone get the number of that truck?" Matthew said.

"Ness is in trouble!" Timothy said.

Matthew helped Timothy up and appeared shocked. "What was that? How do you know that?"

"That was a message from Ness. He needs help. He's been captured along with Alex, Whiskers and Jack," Timothy said.

"What about Chris?" Matthew asked.

Timothy frowned. "Yes, him too."

"Where did they take them?" Matthew asked.

Timothy wasn't sure. Ness had passed out. While Timothy could in theory still track them down, he had no way of knowing for sure which way the Rocket Base was.

"I don't know but I have a way to find out," Timothy said.

- - -

Soon later, Timothy, Ash, Misty, Jean Luc and Matthew were in the house they were keeping Jessie, James Meowth in.

"Where is Ness?" Timothy asked.

"How should we know? We didn't take him!" Meowth said.

Timothy frowned. "You heard his message! They've taken him! I want him back! If he were here, I'd get him to force the information from your minds!"

"Tim please, anger isn't going to get us anywhere," Ash said.

"I know it's just so aggravating that people like this exist. They have no right to do this!" Timothy said.

Ash nodded. "If the three of you helped us to find where they're taking our friends, it would go a long in establishing our truce."

Meowth crossed his arms. "The boss would kill us if we squealed."

Max, who'd been outside, ran into the house, staying close to Ash and Misty. "There you guys are. You're not going to go away are you? What if someone sees you? They'll take you guys away!"

"We don't have a choice. People need our help," Ash said.

"We can't stay secret forever. Besides, what if they force Chris or Alex to tell them where the village is?" Matthew asked.

"We'd all be at risk. Which is why we have to do something," Ash said.

"Besides, they'd be looking for James and Jessie, not a Skitty or a female Meowth," Misty said.

"It's not funny!" James cried.

"You wouldn't let them hurt us!" Jessie said, touching Meowth's right arm.

Meowth stood in front of Jessie and nodded his head.

"But what if something happens to you guys?" Max asked.

"We've been through a lot worse. We'll get through this," Ash said.

Jean Luc's cheeks sparked. "I'm going with you guys. I won't let them hurt you."

Jean Luc by now had taken to wearing shirts. He felt a need to wear at least something, even if decency didn't require him to. He was currently wearing an outfit similar to Ash's but without the pants. Misty had said it looked cute, much to Jean Luc's embarrassment.

"If they try to hurt you guys for helping us. I'll pound them in the ground so far, even a ground a type won't be able to get them out," Timothy said, hitting both of his left hands with his right hands.

"Okay, okay. Rumor has it they have a small base a few hours west of here. They probably want to know why 'dis happened to us and how to make it happen to others," Meowth said.

"What if they can recreate it and make super soldiers?" Ash asked.

"One more reason to stop them," Timothy said.

"We should leave as soon as possible," Ash said.

"I'm going too. They might have snakes guarding the place," Matthew said.

Peter floated into the house, making everyone jump. "I'll stand guard while you guys are gone!"

"How long have you been listening in?" Ash asked.

"Long enough to know what you guys are doing. I wondered why everyone acted like they were in pain. I never heard that message and was curious."

Jessie gasped. "You don't watch me taking a bath to do?"

Misty frowned. "Or me?"

Peter cringed at Jessie. "No! I'm a ghost type not a voyeur. Misty, you don't wear clothes anyway. Still, I'm a gentleman, I wouldn't look."

Ash knelt down and put his arms on Max's shoulders. "You need to stay with your sister for now. I know instinct makes you think of us as your parents but May needs you too."

Max looked upset; tears started forming in his eyes. "But she's a Furret; won't she want to see Chris?"

"I think she's afraid of him. Besides, she likes Brendon," Ash said.

"You're sure you'll be okay?" Max asked.

"I'm sure," Ash said.

Timothy looked into the sky. "Don't worry Ness. I'm coming!"

- - -

Chris opened his eyes. He was staring at a gray ceiling in a dimly lit room. His arms and legs were held down by shackles. His entire body ached. He looked back and forth, trying to figuring out where he was and hoping to see if Alexandra, Jack or Whiskers were there with him.

He saw another table to his left with someone secured to it.

"Alex?" Chris said.

Chris tried to free himself but the shackles were too tight for him to move his arms or legs. He found himself starting to get claustrophobic as feelings of panic began to flow through him.

"Alex, wake up!" Chris said.

Alex didn't move and Chris feared that she was dead. Chris felt his heart stop. Much to Chris' relief, Alex started to move. He heard her groan and frowned.

_If they're hurt her, I'm going to tear their hearts out!_

"Man, my head is pounding. Where am I?" Alex asked.

"Alex, are you okay?" Chris asked.

"Chris, I ... where am we? Where did they ... oh my God. I'm naked, those disgusting perverted, why would they do this?" Alex asked.

"Are you all right? They must have it dark in here not to hurt you," Chris said.

"Well, we have to get out of here before they do whatever it is they want to do to us."

Chris heard footsteps echo through the room.

"You're staying right here," a voice said.

"Who said that?" Chris asked.

Chris watched a man wearing a white coat walk into view between his and Alex's tables.

"What do you want with us?" Alex asked.

"Where are Whiskers, Jack and Ness?" Chris asked.

The man walked over to Chris' table, pulled a tool of some sort out, pressed it up to Chris' chest and pressed a button on it that sends a painful shock into Chris' body. Chris yelled out in pain.

"I'll be the one asking the questions here," the man said.

Chris breathed deep. He wanted to spit in the man's face but knew it would only solicit another shock and put the others at risk, so he held back.

"Please, can you give me my clothes back?" Alex asked.

The man turned to her, Chris feared he'd shock her but instead, he pressed a button that turned lights on above her table. She yelled out in pain for the several seconds the man had the lights on. When he turned them off, he sighed.

"Interesting weapons are they not? My dear, clothing is for humans. Now, you are not human. Although you are a lovely lady. Why would I deny myself the sight of your body?"

Chris saw Alex struggle against her shackles. He wanted even more to strangle the man now. He made a vow that when (not if) they escaped, that he would make this man suffer for what he was doing.

"Now, you're going to tell me exactly how this happened to you. We will need a few blood samples of course. This can go one of two ways. One, we can do this the pleasant way or two..."

The man turned and shocked Chris with the tool.

"A Furret may have some resistance to electricity. However, even your heart will only take so much. It would be a pity to let a specimen such as yourself perishes. I suggest you consider your options. I'll give you both ten minutes to decide," the man said.

When the man left the room, Chris heard Alex call his name.

"Are you all right?" Alex asked.

Chris took a deep breath. "Yeah, I think so. I just want to know where Whiskers, Jack and Ness are. I'm such an idiot. If I would have asked Tim then none of this would have happened."

"Either that or he'd be stuck here like us. Look Chris, you can't blame yourself for this," Alex said.

Chris looked back and forth in the darkened room, trying to figure out what means of escape he could use. He knew that he couldn't give the location of the village away! The thought of any of the others suffering this fate because of him made Chris feel sick.

"Alex ... I'm sorry. How can I ever forgive myself if they're hurt any of the others?" Chris asked.

"We'll get out of this somehow. Anyway, the others must know we're missing by now. They'll come for us," Alex said.

"I hope so," Chris said with a sigh.

"We just have to hold out," Alex said.

The man returned soon after. "Well, have you made your decision?"

"You have no right to do this!" Chris said.

The man smiled. "And who's going to stop me? You?"

"We'll never talk!" Alex said.

"Perhaps not now but in time, you'll learn to see things our way you see, we can't have creatures like you wandering around. You're not natural. What would happen if some innocent child ended up like you? Why, without a cure, they'd be condemned to a life of loneliness. You wouldn't want that would you?" The man asked.

Chris watched the man walked over to what Chris assumed was a table just outside of his sight. The man came back with a tray with syringes and test tubes. He called for two others, a pair of young women to join him

"I'm afraid we're going to need some blood samples. I suggest you cooperate," the man said.

"You don't have to figure out a cure. There was a kid that got changed and he's doing just fine. In fact there are a number of people who I'd consider kids, affected!" Chris said.

The man smiled. "Oh really now? And who might they be?"

Chris mentally bashed himself for snapping like that. He felt the sharp jab of a needle as one of the aides collected some of his blood.

"I'm not going to tell you," Chris said.

"Perhaps we need to motivate you somewhat. I'm sure there are a lot of trainers that would love to capture a creature such as you. Why, if this kid is no longer human, his parents wouldn't recognize him even if he was right in front of them. Would you want some trainer to capture him just because of something that isn't his fault? Perhaps if he was a fellow Furret, you might even feel a connection to him," the man said.

"Go to Hell!" Chris said.

The man waved off the two women (who'd finished collecting blood samples).

"I'm sorry you don't wish to make things easier for you and your friend," the man said.

With that, he again shocked Chris, this time for longer. Chris yelled out in pain and could smell that the fur where the guy was shocking him was singed as a result.

When the man ceased, he frowned as Chris cringed in pain.

"I suggest you change your mind soon."

To Be Continued...


	14. Out of Pokégypt

Out of Pokégypt

Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue.

Author note: This chapter was done by Ri2

------

"This is so cool!" Tracey said eagerly as he examined a large scroll of papyrus on the wall with elaborate and beautiful pictograms on it, copying the images into his sketchbook with a fanatical amount of zeal. "Don't you think so, Misty?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, I guess," Misty said, leaning against a nearby display case, trying to stifle her yawn.

"Azuri!" her Azurill, a huggable round blue-mouse-like creature with a big ball at the end of its spring-like tail said cheerfully, squirming about in her arms.

Tracey, the dark-haired headband-wearing sketch artist and assistant of Professor Oak, had taken Misty, the lovely red-haired Cerulean Gym Leader, to the Pewter City museum to see a new exhibit that had opened up on the history and artwork of the ancient empire of Pokegypt. The room was filled with cases containing magnificent pieces of jewelry, sculptures, a mummy or two, and other items found in ancient tombs or temples, while papyrus (or representations of it) was hanging from the wall so any museum-goer could see the scenery they depicted. Some of it was as mundane as showing farmers at work and presenting their harvest to a pharaoh, others showed fantastically vivid (and gorey) scenes of battle, and a few were as surreal to show scenes of people journeying to the afterlife. It wasn't that Misty didn't find all this interesting, but she had been pulled rather early out of bed to get here, Tracey having pulled some strings by merit of being Professor Oak's assistant so that they could get in to the exhibit before the museum opened, and so have more time to see (and draw) everything without other visitors getting in the way. Misty admitted that it was kind of cool to have the whole exhibit to herself (and Tracey), she was just a little tired due to lack of sleep. She had been up late cleaning the gym, and her sisters had been of little help (as usual).

Leaving Tracey to his faithful copying of the pictures on the walls, Misty wandered over to a glass-fenced enclosure by the wall where a number of life-sized statues of people with the heads of Pokemon stood regally on pedestals, looking out on the exhibit as if all of it was their domain and kingdom. Misty set Azurill down for a moment so that she could better read the information placards explaining the purpose of the statues. According to the placards, the ancient Pokegyptians had carved statues like these to honor their gods, perfect beings whom they thought embodied a union of human and Pokemon to obtain dominion over both. Shown here were the Pidgeot-headed Horus, Feraligatr-headed Sobek, Houndoom-headed Anubis, and…

Misty paused for a moment, glancing at the statue of a beautiful woman with the head of a cat. The placard said that was Bast, goddess of cats. She apparently had had an entire city built in her name, and because of her cat Pokemon were sacred in Pokegypt and had even been mummified alongside their masters so that they could travel to the afterlife together. Feeling oddly drawn to the cat-headed statue, she walked over to examine it better, forgetting the other gods (and Azurill) for the moment.

Misty studied the statue, ignoring the sounds of Tracey muttering happily in the background or Azurill squeaking and hopping about, not sure why she felt so fascinated by this statue. It wasn't that she particularly loved cat Pokemon, although she did find them cute and somewhat intriguing. She might have even gotten one of her own, if her sisters weren't all madly allergic to cat hair and if the Cerulean Gym wasn't so full of water, which might make creatures of the feline persuasion uncomfortable. So, with the fact that she was not an avid cat lover established, just why did she feel so attracted to this statue of Bast? What was so hypnotic and enamoring about the statue's empty stone eyes?

"Azurill!"

"Hmm?" Misty was snapped out of her trance by her foster 'child's' loud cry of exultation. She turned around to find that her baby Pokemon was bouncing happily on top of a case full of ancient (and probably very fragile) goblets, which rattled with every impact the water mouse made on the glass shielding them. "Azurill, get down from there!" She didn't want to have to take responsibility for breaking a very valuable artifact thousands of years old!

"Azu!" Azurill obediently jumped off the case…but unfortunately, overshot Misty completely and arced right towards the statue of Bast.

"Oh no! Azurill, stop!" Misty cried, lunging for her Pokemon, trying to grab it before it could hit the statue.

Azurill landed in her arms…right after it had rebounded off the chest of the Bast statue, causing it to topple backwards on its pedestal. Misty's face went white with horror as Azurill chirped blissfully in her arms, unaware of what it had just done. Misty held stock-still, not even daring to breath, praying that the statue would stop tilting over and regain its earlier balance.

The statue continued to tilt backwards…until it hit the wall, cracking it with a teeth-grinding crunch (the wall, not the statue) and stopped moving. Misty sighed in relief.

That's when, with an even more sickening crack, the statue crumbled to pieces, collapsing to the floor in a pile of dust and broken stone. Half of Bast's face stared up at Misty accusingly from the heap of rubble, as if to blame her for what had just happened. _"Fuck!"_ Misty cursed, causing Azurill to squeal happily and try to repeat the new word it had just learned in Pokespeak.

"Holy shit," Tracey said in astonishment, rushing over to see what had made all the noise and finding the totally destroyed Bast statue. "Misty, did you-"

"No! It was Azurill's fault!" Misty protested. Azurill babbled mindlessly, not paying attention to what was going on around it.

"You're still going to have to take responsibility," Tracey said gravely. "It's your Pokemon, after all."

"Yeah, that you gave to me!" she snapped. When he flinched, she grimaced and started over. "Sorry, you didn't deserve that, it's just… Look, maybe if we get out of here quickly the museum people will figure something else caused it and we won't get in trouble. I mean, no alarms have gone off, they probably haven't even noticed it's broken yet, right?"

"Uh, Misty? The alarms here are silent." Tracey pointed to a security camera hanging from the wall nearby pointed right at them. "And assuming the guard isn't in the bathroom or taking a coffee break, I think they already know what happened and will be down here any minute to get us. Or you, anyway, I didn't do anything. Then again, I _did_ convince them to let you in with me, so… Crap, Professor Oak will never trust me again! And they'll probably ban me from here for life!" He moaned in anguish. "Oh man, what are we gonna do?!"

"I can't afford to pay for this!" Misty cried, squeezing Azurill too hard and causing it to wail in discomfort. "Even with all the shows my sisters put on, we can barely pay the rent due to all the stupid beauty products and expensive stuff they waste our money on!" She wondered for a moment if this was how Ash felt when she kept demanding him to pay her back for destroying her bike, which he couldn't afford and in the end never got around to doing because he never seemed to have enough money. "Um… Crapcrapcrap. Maybe we can blame it on Team Rocket?"

"Security cameras," Tracey reminded her.

Misty's shoulders sagged. "Oh, yeah. Shoot."

As Tracey and Misty continued to panic, and Azurill finally picked up on its mother's distress and started crying, nobody noticed the cloud of white sparkling mist rising from the pile of rubble that had once been Bast's statue until it was too late. Too late, as in, it rushed forward and poured itself down Misty's throat, causing Tracey to gasp and Misty to stagger backwards, clutching her throat and gasping for air, dropping Azurill in the process. The blue mouse landed on its bouncy tail-ball to cushion the fall, and looked up at Misty in confusion, wondering what was wrong with its mother. "Misty!" Tracey cried, rushing forward and grabbing Misty before she could collapse. "Are you all right? What was that?!"

"I-I don't know," Misty gasped, shaking Tracey off and recovering her breath. "I feel… I feel… Ugh…" She grimaced and suddenly stumbled backwards, almost falling, but she managed to grab the railing of the fence surrounding the statues just in time and was able to regain her balance. She squeezed her eyes shut and gasped in pain, frightening Tracey as she felt strange sensations rippling through her body. Her head pounded as these sensations, or rather, memories rushed into her brain, filling her mind with images of golden sands, a great blue river, magnificent palaces, and long days under the sun with her loved ones until…until…

She groaned and crouched down to the ground, her legs turning to jelly and unable to support herself as more strange memories and sensations filled her body. Quite naturally, Tracey panicked again. "Misty!" He quickly knelt down in front of her and grabbed her shoulders. "What's happening?! Are you all right?!"

"Uhhh…" Misty grimaced and shook her head slowly, starting to gain control of whatever was happening to her and…realizing, remembering…_becoming…_ "I… I think I'm okay, Tracey," she gasped, opening her eyes. "I'm just… I'm becoming what I, what I'm supposed to be, what I've always been meant for."

Tracey stared at her blankly as she got back to her feet and took a few steps away from him, confused by how quickly she had regained her poise and by the weird look in her eyes. "Huh?" He glanced at Azurill, as if the baby Pokemon could answer his questions, but it seemed just as clueless as he was.

"You see, I'm more than just Misty," Misty said, glancing at the ruined statue. "And I'm just realizing, remembering that now. "For I…am…_Bast!_" Tracey jumped, not just because of the savage, almost feline yowl he heard in that last word but also because Misty's pupils abruptly contracted into cat-like slits. And then there was a flash of light, and Misty…

Wasn't exactly Misty anymore. "Wow," said a dumbstruck Tracey, mouth hanging open. He wondered for a moment if he should be getting down on his knees or something.

Misty had grown at least a head taller than him, her physique changing from that of a teenage young woman to that of an adult supermodel, and a very attractive one at that. Her tight red gold-trimmed floor-length sleeveless Egyptian gown perfectly showed off her rather sensuous curves and larger chest. Slits in the side of the dress allowed her freer movement and also showed off her legs, which were very shapely…and also covered in a thin layer of soft velvety black fur that ended in sandaled feet somewhat smaller than those of a human's with paws and claws in place of toes and nails. Her slim arms, also covered in black fur, ended in hands that seemed human enough but had rather sharp claws that could probably be retracted if their owner felt like it. Her wrists were adorned with gold bracelets, and jeweled rings were on several of her fingers. A number of golden necklaces were hung around her neck with various hieroglyphic signs, ankhs, eyes, and scarabs adorning them. Her face had changed completely, going from being a human to that of a feline's, covered in black fur with a slightly protruding nose and a demure, somewhat enigmatic smile. Her eyes were still the same blue they had always been, but the pupils were slits, so even those had changed in a way. Her hair was still red, oddly enough, making a nice contrast to her pitch-black fur. It had grown longer, and most of it hung down to the small of her back while two clumps went neatly over her shoulders. A golden headdress in the shape of a pair of wings framed her forehead, the jeweled heads of a Pidgeot and an Arbok growing out from the front of the headdress. A pair of triangular cat ears with small gold rings piercing the sides grew out from the top of her head. To complete the look, a long, thin tail grew down from behind her, coming out through another slit in the back of her dress, waving back and forth and hypnotizing Azurill, who was easily distracted due to its very brief attention span.

"Um… uh… wow," Tracey repeated, looking at Misty's face, then her chest, then her face again. "M-Misty, is that you?!"

"Yes, and no," the cat-creature told him. "I am Misty, and I am also the great goddess Bast, divine patron of cats and ruler of humans and Pokemon!"

"Oh," said Tracey. "Um… so, what, you were stuck in that statue and by breaking it Misty let you possess her or something?"

Misty shook her head. "No, Tracey, I was always Bast. I think. But it's still me! Um… how do I put this…" She screwed her feline face up in concentration. "Okay, a few thousand years ago all the gods of Pokegypt were killed in a great battle with the chaos serpent Apep. But I was able to preserve some of my essence in a statue of myself, that statue which Azurill destroyed." She knelt down and stroked the head of the little blue mouse, causing it to squeak in pleasure. "And you have my eternal thanks for that, little one." She looked back at Tracy. "Anyway, I knew that my eternal soul might one day be reborn in a mortal form, so I preserved my essence in that statue in the slim hope that someday, my reincarnation might stumble upon it, allowing me to transmute frail mortal flesh into divine matter and ascend to godhood once more."

"Oh," said Tracey. "Cool. Uh, hey, can I make a picture of you sometime? It would be really cool!"

"Of course," said Misty. She narrowed her eyes. "As long as you don't fulfill male fantasies with it, like you do with the _other_ pictures of attractive women I known you've drawn. Because if you do, I'll claw out your eyes and eat your testicles."

Tracey laughed nervously, getting the distinct feeling that she meant it, and quickly changed the subject. "Um, so, now that you've gone from being Misty, Cerulean Gym leader to Misty, great god and reincarnation of Bast, what're you going to do with yourself?"

"The souls of my family from ancient Pokegypt have been reborn as well, in the forms of people I knew before my ascension. I must find them and share my divine essence with them so that they may regain their immortality and godhood as well," Misty explained, standing up and cradling Azurill in her arms.

"Oh. Neat. Um, hey, am I…"

"No," Misty said flatly. Seeing Tracey's face fall in disappointment, she added, "But I will make you my court artist, if you like. I intend to rebuild my palace and form a new kingdom where my family and I may dwell and reign forever, and we will need beautiful masterpieces to fill our realm. Masterpieces the likes of which I am sure an artist of your caliber can produce."

"Oh!" Tracey said, flushing with gratitude. "Th-thank you! Uh, but, I couldn't leave Professor Oak-"

"I'll give you triple what he's paying you now," Misty interrupted.

"I'm in," Tracey said.

Misty's ears twitched. "The guards are coming. Finally. We should get out of here."

"Huh? I don't hear any-" Tracey started.

"I have better hearing than you do now. Let's go," Misty said, gesturing with one arm and causing glittering mist to rise up from her feet and swirl around her. "Stand close to me, unless you want to be left behind."

"Ah, no, no, I'm coming," Tracey said quickly, stepping close to her and letting the mist swirl around him as well. "But, um, what about the statue over there?" Misty gestured with one hand, and suddenly the bits and pieces of the broken statue rose up from the ground and reassembled themselves back together, in mere moments totally reconstructing the statue and making it seem as if it had never been broken at all. "Whoa."

Misty laughed. "Being a god has its advantages."

"Do those advantages include erasing security footage to make it look as if we'd never been here?" Tracey asked hopefully.

"I have no reason to hide. Now that I have become a god once more, I want all to know that I have returned and will soon establish my kingdom," Misty said proudly.

"Oh," said Tracey in disappointment.

"Azuri!" Azurill squeaked happily, just before the mist covered them up completely and dissipated, taking them with it.

A moment later, the overweight, underpaid museum security guard stumbled into the room, red in the face and gasping for breath, on the verge of a heart attack. He glanced around, his face going even redder with anger when he saw that there was absolutely nothing wrong at all, and everything was in its place. Fuming with rage, he turned and started back towards the security desk, intending to have a word with his partner for interrupting his nap for a crummy false alarm.

…

Elsewhere…

Two feline figures just as, if not more, divine than Misty/Bast were heavily engaged in their own activities. The larger, Mewtwo, a tall purple and white bony figure that looked only vaguely like a cat was levitating a few inches off the floor, his long purple tail curled around his legs, eyes shut and a blue aura glowing around him. He was deep in a meditative trance.

The other creature, Mew, an utterly adorable pink vaguely kitten-like creature who bore an odd resemblance to Mewtwo (Or was it the other way around?) was also deep in a trance…one of sleep. She was lying on her back on a large squishy pink bubble, snoring loudly, a snot bubble growing from her nose. Those who called her the epitome of beauty, grace, and perfection would find themselves hard-pressed to keep saying that if they saw her like this, especially when both her snot bubble and cushion bubble popped, causing her to wake up with a jolt and tumble to the floor, twisting and fumbling and trying to untangle herself from her tail and limbs so she could get to her feet.

Once she had recovered her bearings and licked her pink fur back into a presentable state, she floated into the air and poked Mewtwo in the side. "Hey." Nothing happened. She frowned and poked him again, harder. "Hey!" Still nothing. Mewtwo's face remained closed and expressionless, eyes shut in meditation. Mew scowled, then started rapidly flying around him, poking just about every inch of flesh she could while yelling, "Heyheyheyheyheyheyheyheyhey!" Mewtwo still remained in a trance. Mew backed away, realizing she needed to pull out the big guns. She conjured a paper bag out of free molecules, blew into it, held it shut with one hand to keep the air trapped, then popped it, creating a loud noise while jolted Mewtwo out of a trance with a cry of alarm and caused him to fall to the ground in a tumble of limbs and tail that took him a few minutes to wriggle his way out of.

"Hey!" Mew said cheerfully when Mewtwo had finally sorted himself out and was glaring at her with purple eyes burning with hatred.

"What," he snarled. "Is it? I was meditating."

"Yeah, but I picked up something way more important in the ethers and figured I should tell you," Mew said. "It's not like you were doing anything important anyway."

"Oh no," he said sarcastically, standing up and looming over her due to his much-greater height. "Nothing important at all, I was just on the verge of becoming one with the universe and learning the meaning of life."

"Oh, is that all?" Mew said dismissively with a carefree wave of a hand. "I figured out all that ages ago, it's not so tough. You can always do it later."

Mewtwo's eye twitched. "Why the powers that be chose to invest such great energies…the power to bring life into being from nothingness, to control matter and energy, to bend reality to your whim…into a happy-go-lucky simpleton like you I will never understand."

"Better someone who knows how to have fun rather than a grouchy sourpuss like yourself," Mew said honestly. "Now, listen! This is important! An old friend of mine's just woken up after being gone for a really really long time! Isn't that great?"

Mewtwo gnashed his teeth. "You mean to tell me you interrupted my quest for ultimate knowledge just to tell me that an old friend of yours is back in town?!"

"Yes," Mew said plainly. "And also because if you had delved any deeper in your meditation, your head would have exploded. You're not ready for that level of enlightenment just yet." He blinked. "Now, let's go and watch how my friend is doing!"

A large flat screen television set popped out of nowhere, along with a pair of very comfortable-looking recliner chairs built for Mew and Mewtwo's size. The larger cat jumped as they appeared, then glared at Mew in annoyance. "I don't think I'm ever going to get the hang of you defying the laws of physics and making things appear out of nowhere."

"Yes you will, give it a few hundred years," she said reassuringly, floating into the smaller seat and switching on the television with a thought. Then she summoned a big tub of popcorn and started munching on it. "Want some?"

Mewtwo made a look of disgust. "No. What makes you think I'm not ready for that level of enlightenment?"

"You're too self-centered. And angry all the time," Mew replied.

"I am not angry all the time!" Mewtwo protested angrily.

Mew threw a popcorn kernel at him. It bounced off his head. He stared at her incredulously. "Shh! It's just getting to the good part!" she said, pointing to the television screen.

…

The cloud of mist reformed far from the Pewter museum, then faded away, depositing Misty, Tracey, and Azurill in the main pool room of the Cerulean Gym. "Okay," Misty said. "I just stopped here to drop you off, I'll be back later after I go and revive my family."

Tracey made a face. "You couldn't have dropped me off at Professor Oak's?"

"The gym's closer, and you'll be staying here anyway after I turn it into a palace," Misty said.

"You're turning it into a palace?" said the surprised Tracey.

She shrugged. "Sure, can't exactly rule a kingdom from a place like this, now can I? Now…" She paused and frowned. "Wait…something's not right."

"What do you mean?" Tracey asked, looking around. Everything seemed in order to him, albeit a bit empty and silent.

"It's too quiet. The gym should have opened up a couple of hours ago. There should be somebody here to battle trainers. But nobody's here." She sniffed the air. "The Pokemon are all in their Pokeballs. And my sisters haven't been through here all morning, I'd smell them. Why would-" She stopped. Her eyes flared in anger. "They _wouldn't._"

"Uh, wouldn't what?" asked the confused Tracey. Instead of answering him, Misty handed him Azurill and stormed from the room, heading for the gym's lobby. "Um…okay, just ignore me, I don't mind…"

He followed after the angry cat-goddess and found her glaring angrily at the gym's main doors, which were closed and locked. That didn't seem to hinder Misty in the slightest, she simply ripped the door off its hinges and threw it to the corner of the lobby, much to Tracey's astonishment, and examined the large sign hanging outside. She snarled, eyes flaring with rage. "Those _bitches!_ They _promised_!"

"Uh, pardon me, don't mean to be a bother, but… can you tell me what's gotten you in such a snit?" Tracey asked, cringing when Misty turned her angry feline glare at him. "Ack! Please don't kill me, you need someone to be your court artist after all!"

She ripped the sign off the doors and thrusted it into Tracey's face. "Read this!"

Tracey did, though he went a little cross-eyed at first since it was so close to him. "'Gym, like, closed on account of it being such a, like, perfect day to work on our tans. Like, come back. Tomorrow. Or next week. Or whenever.'" Misty growled angrily and broke the sign in half with her bare hands, er, claws. "I take it they aren't supposed to be working on their tans today."

"No, they're not!" Misty snarled, pacing back and forth, tail flicking angrily behind her. "They _promised_ me they'd take some responsibility for a change and manage the gym and properly fight any trainer who came to get a badge today while I was out spending the day with you! Instead, they're slacking off, _as usual_, to go do whatever they want, leaving me to do all the work!" She clawed at the air furiously. "Well, you know what? I don't have to take this anymore! I'm a god now and can do whatever I please, and right now I'd _really_ be pleased if I went to have a little _chat_ with my sisters about taking responsibility and keeping their promises!" Cackling evilly enough to raise the hairs on Tracey's back, Misty vanished in a cloud of mist.

Tracey stared at where Misty had disappeared for a moment, then glanced down at Azurill. "Did that scare you too?"

"Azuri!" Azurill squeaked happily.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." It didn't take long for Tracey to figure out where Misty and her sisters had gone off to. Since the sign said they were sunbathing, Tracey figured there was a good chance that the older women had gone up to the sundeck they had recently had built on the gym's roof so they wouldn't have to walk all the way to the beach if they wanted to sunbathe. (Not that they didn't still go to the beach to do that anyway, but since they bothered to put a sundeck in, why not use it, right?) After leaving Azurill in the kitchen with some food, and entrusting his Marill to keep an eye on her (Not very hard, seeing as his Marill was Azurill's mother), Tracey headed up the stairs to the roof. He had left Azurill behind because he didn't want the infant water mouse's mind to be horribly warped by the no doubt grisly and bloody massacre that Tracey was half-expecting to find as all that was left of the Sensational Cerulean Sisters. In her current form and attitude, Misty was fully capable of doing such a thing, and he didn't know what implications that meant for him if he were going to take up that job as court artist, since he wasn't sure he could cope with working for a killer.

Much to his relief, there was no horrifically graphic crime scene when he got up to the roof. Instead, all he found was Misty proudly standing on the sundeck, with three… _creatures_ that Tracey supposed must have once been her sisters purring and mewling and groveling at her heels. All three of them resembled Delcatty, except that they were humanoid, sort of like Misty, but not as lovely and with much more skin showing. (Furry skin, but still skin.)

"Oh Mistress, please forgive us!" begged one of the three, probably Daisy. It was easy for Tracey to recognize her, since they had dated for a little while before she had dumped him for being 'too nerdy' and drawing pictures of her all the time, which at first she had thought was flattering and later said was just creepy. Like the other two, the majority of her fur was cream-colored, but she had long wavy orange-blond hair down to her waist with big triangular orange-topped ears sticking out from the side of her head and a blond tuft of fur on the end of her tail, which was hanging limp in submission. She was almost naked save for a cloth wrapped around her breasts (which Tracey could have sworn were smaller than they had used to be, and now smaller than Misty's current chest) and a loincloth. Gold manacles were locked around her wrists and ankles, and a gold collar wrapped around her neck, though there were no chains attached to them. They were pretty and had rubies set into them, but they were still manacles. Her eyes, which had once been a color Tracey couldn't quite recall, were now solid black and glistening with tears. "We're sorry we shirked our duties to you, we just wanted to warm our fur in the sun for a few moments and lost track of time!"

"We'll never do it again, we promise!" wailed Violet, recognizable by her long wavy blue hair, with two locks hanging down her shoulders. She wore clothing (if you can call it that) similar to Daisy's, with silver manacles and collar set with sapphires.

"You may take our lives, and replace us with servants more to your liking, if you wish…" whimpered Lily, whose neon pink hair was shorter than the others and came down over her shoulders much like Violet's. Her manacles and shackles were bronze, set with topazes. "Our souls are yours forever, you know that!"

Misty gave them a small and satisfied, and haughtily feline, smile. "Never fear, my handmaidens. I am not a needlessly cruel goddess, and it pleases me for you to serve me. I will forgive this disobedience and allow you to bathe in the sun with me at a later date as long as you agree to be more diligent in the future and work twice as hard at your tasks today than you would usually."

The three humanoid Delcatty exhaled joyfully and bowed so low their heads touched the ground. "Oh, thank you Mistress!" Daisy cried in gratitude.

"We won't let you down!" said Violet.

"You can always count on us to serve you! We are your most loyal of servants, our lives are yours to do with as you please!" Lily said.

"I know, my dears, I know," Misty said, bending down to scratch each of the three things that had once been her sisters behind the ears in turn and causing them to moan in ecstasy and purr loudly.

"What did you do to them?" Tracey asked as Misty got up and walked over to him, the three sisters following her on hands and knees, as if afraid to be too far away from her divine presence.

"One of my powers is the ability to turn humans into feline Pokemon or feline Pokemon anthropomorphs," Misty explained. "I can then bend their minds to my will and make them do whatever I please. It is my power and prerogative, as goddess of cats. To punish my sisters for breaking their promises and shirking their responsibilities, I have erased their memories and turned them into my obedient (and less pretty) slaves. Now they will finally do all the work that they have always shoved onto me!" She glanced at Tracey. "Does this bother you?"

"No, not really," Tracey said. He was still smarting from Daisy dumping him. "Um, wait, does that mean you could do something like this to me, too?"

"Yes, but I wouldn't alter your mind, and I'd only do it if you wanted me too," Misty told him. "Since you joined me willingly, it is your choice whether you would like to stay human or be transformed."

"Oh." Tracey frowned in thought. "Um, would I get, you know, more buff or something? Less, um, nerdy, if you know what I mean?"

She gave him a very catty smile. "If that is what you desire."

Tracey grinned. "Well, I'll think about it."

"Very well." She turned, looking off into the distance. "I must go now, to find the reincarnations of my destined mate and our children. Once we have reunited, we shall return here, and my palace shall rise once more." She glanced down at her sisters, purring and rubbing up against her legs. "Handmaidens, I want you to make the place ready while I am gone. Lily, clean the gym from top to bottom, I want it to be absolutely spotless when I return."

"Yes mistress!" Lily said loyally, bowing to the floor.

"Violet, release all the Pokemon from their Pokeballs, feed them, clean them, and inform them of how things have changed around here and what it will mean for them," Misty commanded.

"E-even Gyarados?" whimpered Violet.

"Yes, even Gyarados," Misty said, her smile slightly cruel.

Violet mewled, but bowed. "Yes Mistress. I suppose I deserve it."

"You do indeed. And Daisy…I want you to entertain Tracey while I am gone. Make him comfortable, and fulfill all his desires, and I mean _all_ of them, do you understand?" Misty told her last servant.

Daisy glanced at Tracey, ran her eyes up and down his form. Then she licked her lips almost hungrily and bowed, causing Tracey to flush. "Yes, Mistress. I understand."

Misty nodded. "Very well. I shall return shortly. Get to work, all of you."

"Yes Mistress!" the three servants called out as Misty vanished in a cloud of mist, and Tracey nearly echoed them in gratitude. Lily and Violet scurried back inside to do their assigned tasks, while Daisy rose to her feet, sauntered over to Tracey, and wrapped herself around him. She rubbed his cheek with her nose, purring him and causing him to turn bright red.

"It seems that I am all yours. What is your bidding, my master?" she whispered into his ear.

Tracey blinked, almost unable to believe this was happening. It was practically too good to be true. He licked his lips in anticipation. "Would you mind modeling for a picture?"

Elsewhere.

"Awww, they're so cute together, aren't they?" Mew commented, referring to Tracey sketching the posing Daisy.

"Bah, she's only paying attention to him because her mistress told her to," Mewtwo said disparagingly. "She'd never pay attention to him otherwise. She even broke up with him a while ago when they were dating, didn't she?"

Mew shrugged. "Maybe she's changed her mind now that she's a kitty-cat."

"Speaking of which, I'm surprised you approve of Misty changing them against their will into her slaves. I thought you were in support of free will," Mewtwo pointed out.

"I am. But they really are better off this way. Before they were basically vacuous wastes of space and flesh, now at least they'll be useful and productive," Mew said.

"I thought the blonde one had been getting a little better than that," Mewtwo said.

Mew giggled. "She has been. Why do you think Misty paired her up with Tracey rather than forcing her to do menial labor?"

Mewtwo's eyes widened as realization dawned on him. "Ahhh. I see. Very devious."

"We cats tend to be." Then Mew threw a piece of popcorn at him.

"What was that for?" Mewtwo complained.

Mew chuckled. "I felt like it."

…

Somewhere in the Sinnoh region.

We join our heroes Ash, Brock, Dawn and Pikachu as they continue down the road to becoming Pokemon masters/breeders/coordinators! Wait, where are they, the road's empty...

"Hey, we're down here!"

"Pikapika!"

Oh, there they are, at the bottom of that pit which abruptly opened up beneath them in the middle of the road.

"Where'd this hole come from?" Dawn, a pretty young girl with blue eyes, long dark blue hair hanging down her back with two tufts curling up from the back and framing her face, wearing a white cap with a pink Pokeball design on it. A reddish-pink scarf was wrapped around her neck, and she wore a black sleeveless top with a pink skirt at the bottom, showing off a lot of leg. She had high pink boots and black socks covering her feet asked, rubbing her head and sitting at the bottom of the pit.

"It just opened up outta nowhere," said Ash, stretching his back as he stood up.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say this looked a lot like the kind of pitfalls Team Rocket used to dig," Brock commented, looking around the pit and examining the walls. "But they haven't used that trick in a while, so maybe they finally grew out of it."

"Uh, Brock? This is Team Rocket you're talking about," pointed out Ash. "If they haven't stopped trying to catch Pikachu in the.what, five years?... Since we first ran into them, what makes you think they'd stop using something like a pitfall just because it was impractical and didn't really do much?"

Brock sweatdropped. "Good point."

As if on cue, a maniacal and stupid-sounding laugh could be heard from the top of the pit, causing the three trainers to groan and Pikachu to sigh in exasperation. "Listen, is that a twerp's voice I hear?" asked Jessie, a hideous woman with delusions of beauty and rather long and ugly red hair.

"It's whining to me, loud and clear," said her partner James, a rather effeminate man with blue hair and green eyes.

"Floating on the winds!"

"Past the stars!"

"In your ear!" added Meowth, the Scratchcat Pokemon.

"Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace!"

"Dashing hope, putting fear in its place!"

"A rose by any other name's just as sweet!"

"When everything's worse, our work is complete!"

"Jessie!"

"And it's James!"

"Meowth! Now that's a name!"

"Putting the do-gooders in their place!"

"Team Rocket!"

"We're in your face!"

"Wobbuffet!" said the blue blob-like Wobbuffet, popping out of its Pokeball.

"Mime mime!" said James' Mime Jr., imitating Wobbuffet.

"Done yet?" asked a bored Ash. Pikachu yawned.

"This is really getting old," said Dawn with a sigh.

Brock snorted. "You've only been with us a couple of months and are thinking that?! Wait'll you listen to them do this practically every day for years, then you can say it's getting old!"

"Pi Pikachu," Pikachu agreed with a nod.

"Hey, we are not getting old!" Jessie shrieked. "I'm just as pretty and youthful as I've always been!"

"In other words, not at all," Meowth muttered under his breath, causing James to snicker and Jessie to pound them both.

"Anyway, today's the day we're finally going to catch Pikachu!" Jessie said triumphantly.

"You say that every day," Dawn pointed out.

"Yes, well, this day's the real one!" Jessie said stubbornly. "James, use the extendable grabber claw thing!"

"Right!" James said. He paused. "Um, we don't have one."

Jessie blinked. "Wait, what? What do you mean we don't have one?"

"Um, Meowth broke it trying to grab apples from a tree in the forest... And instead caught a Spearow... Who then called all its friends and brought down unholy feathery vengeance upon us," said James. "I tell you, being pecked by several dozen rabid birds hurts like Hell."

"Hey, you said you wouldn't tell!" Meowth snapped.

"Well, she asked," James pointed out. "What was I supposed to tell her?!"

"You coulda lied and said that you sat on it and broke it or something like that, you didn't have to bring me into it!" Meowth retorted.

"No way, then she'd hit me instead of you!" James argued.

"I'm going to hit both of you right now if you don't shut up!" Jessie snapped. "Now, since both of you idiots went and broke our grabber claw, how do you propose we get Pikachu without getting electrified?"

"You could come down here and grab him," suggested Ash with a straight face. Brock and Dawn tried not to laugh, and Pikachu did his best to look innocent and not cackle evilly.

"Say, that's a great idea!" said James, starting to pull himself down the edge of the pit.

"What are you doing, you idiot?!" Jessie screamed, pulling him back up. "If you go down there, you'll get electrified!"

"Oh, right," James said, sweatdropping. "Well, then, let's send Meowth down!"

"What?! Why me?!" Meowth yelled.

"Better you than me," James said, resulting in Meowth slashing his face with his claws.

As the trio began to bicker about how they were going to get Pikachu out of the pit, and the heroes sighed and leaned back against the pit walls, waiting for the imbeciles to work something out so they could get out of there, a cloud of mist formed up on the road and dissipated, revealing Misty. She blinked and looked around. "Hmm? That's odd, I thought Ash would be somewhere around." She stopped, noticing Team Rocket and the nearby hole in the ground.

"Oh. Never mind." She walked over to the three idiots and cleared her throat. "Ahem. Excuse me?"

"What, we're in the middle of a very important-yaaaahhh!" Jessie cried in alarm as she saw the clearly inhuman figure standing before her. "What-what the heck is that?!"

"Meowth, what sort of Pokemon is that?" James asked Meowth.

Misty's eye twitched. "You think I'm a Pokemon?!"

"Well, of course you are, you're clearly not human," Jessie said arrogantly. "Now Meowth, what is that?"

"Uhhh." Meowth scratched his head as he stared at Misty, who gave him an encouraging look. Something told him he should know her. Something deep down inside of him said that this was possibly the most important person in the world, someone so great and magnificent that his very genes were encoded with obedience towards her and he should be groveling and paying homage and apologizing for getting in her way and doing so many bad things. Unfortunately, Meowth ignored that part of himself, as usual, and shrugged. "No clue." Misty facefaulted.

"Well, let's catch it and give it to the Boss!" James said eagerly. "He'd love it!"

"Uh, the Boss already has a cat," Jessie pointed out.

"Yeah, me!" Meowth said proudly.

"I was talking about his Persian," Jessie said, causing Meowth to facefault.

"Well, maybe the Boss wants his Persian to have kittens, and needs a Pokemon of good breeding to mate with," James said. "As a born-and-bred blueblood, I can tell at a glance that thing comes from very good breeding, whatever it is."

"Ooh, can I see?" Brock asked from down in the pit. "As an aspiring Pokemon breeder, I could probably tell you that sort of thing!"

Misty's eye twitched. ".I don't believe this. You all think I'm just another Pokemon to be captured and given to your boss, and someone who should be all rights know me at first sight is either a complete moron or in total denial. I'm seriously considering killing you idiots right now."

"Aha, but not before we kill-er, capture you first!" Jessie said triumphantly, pulling out a spare Pokeball. "Pokeball, go!" She hurled it at Misty's face.

Misty just glared at it. The Pokeball froze in midair and exploded. The trio's faces paled. "Oh crap," James said, wetting himself.

What happened to the fools from Team Rocket next was too horrible to be described, and from the awful gut-wrenching sounds they could hear from the bottom of the pit, the heroes found themselves very glad they couldn't see what was going on at that moment. (Although Pikachu seemed to be enjoying the sounds of anguish a little too much. That was probably to be expected, though, considering how much suffering those three idiot thieves had put him through over the last several years.) Fortunately, after about five minutes of screaming, yowling, and rather sickening sounds of bodily harm, there was an explosion followed by the usual, "We're blasting off agaaaaaiiiiin!" followed by a 'ting' sound, allowing the heroes to sigh in relief at the thought that Team Rocket would be back another day. This would be the first time they were ever thankful of that, interestingly enough.

"Okay, coast is clear!" Misty yelled down into the pit.

"Um, you're not going to hurt us, are you?" Dawn asked timidly.

Misty laughed. "No, of course not, I came here to save you guys!"

Ash blinked. "Hey, that voice sounds familiar. You don't suppose it's."

Brock grinned. "Well, let's go up there and find out!"

They quickly started climbing up the walls of the pit. As they did so, Pikachu wondered why he could still smell cat even though Meowth was gone. As Ash tried to lever himself over the edge of the pit, Misty offered him a hand to help him get out. "Oh, thanks Misty-" He paused, dumbfounded, staring in disbelief as she pulled him out. "Misty?!"

"My beloved," she said, staring deep into his eyes. "I have found you at last."

Ash blinked. ".Uh?"

"Pipi Pikachu," Pikachu moaned. _As if life wasn't complicated enough already._

"WOW!" Brock said, eyes turning to hearts as he saw Misty, clearly not recognizing her due to her changed appearance. He rushed over and took her by the hand, shoving Ash out of the way in the process. "Normally, I'm not into bestiality, but in this case I think I'll make an exception! Where have you been all my life?"

Misty's eye twitched. Before she could scratch his eyes out (if he had any), Brock stiffened, his face turning blue. "Uhh.not again." he moaned as a small blue frog Pokemon with big orange cheeks dragged him away, croaking in amusement.

Misty blinked. "Well, glad to know somebody's taken that role with me out of the way."

"Guys, what's going on up." Dawn trailed off as she climbed out of the pit, staring at Misty in disbelief. "Uh."

"Um, Dawn, this is my friend Misty, the one I've been telling you about," Ash said awkwardly, glancing in confusion at Misty. "I.think."

Dawn blinked. "I thought she was a human.not, you know, some kind of cat-person thing."

"Yeah, so did I." muttered Ash, scratching the back of his head in confusion. Pikachu glanced at Misty anxiously, hoping she would remember what good friends they were and not feel like eating him.

Misty walked over to Dawn and took her hands into her own. "My dearest daughter Sekhmet.I am glad to find you well and good in this world."

Dawn blinked. ".Uh?"

Misty frowned. She glanced back and forth between Ash's look of confusion and Dawn's expression of incomprehension tinged with fear, then took in Pikachu's expression of anxiety and Brock's look of paralyzed lust. She realized she was being perhaps a little too forward and needed to take a step back. She took a deep breath and tried another tack. "Okay, I can see I'm not making any sense to either of you, so let's start over." She turned to Ash. "Ash, I found out this morning that I am the reincarnation of an ancient Pokegyptian goddess, and now that I have been awakened seek to reestablish my kingdom. You, Dawn, and one other person are reincarnations of the family I had back in my ancient kingdom. You possess the spirit of my husband and soulmate, the mighty and fierce Leono. You, Dawn, house the soul of my dearest daughter, Sekhmet the Lightbringer. Now that I have retaken my rightful place as a deity, I wish to help the rest of my family ascend to godhood so that we may be a family once again."

Ash and Dawn blinked. They glanced at each other. Pikachu cocked an eyebrow. Misty frowned. "What? It's not that hard to believe, is it? How else would you explain why I look like this?!"

"Oh, i-it's not that," Ash said quickly.

"Yeah, it's not like we don't believe you, it's just, um.are you sure you got the right people?" Dawn said. "I mean, I can't be your daughter, can I? I already have a mother!"

"The mother of your flesh, not of your soul," Misty explained. "She is as much your mother as I am."

Dawn stared incredulously at the cat creature. ".What the heck is that supposed to mean?!"

"And are you sure I'm really your, you know husband?" Ash asked awkwardly. "Because, well, I'm not sure I'm ready for that level of commitment. I mean, not that I wouldn't want to get married _some_ day, I guess, it's just that I'm not sure I want to do it _now_, I was sort of planning on finishing the Sinnoh League and becoming a Pokemon Master first, and then taking a few years to become an even better trainer and grow up a little more before I even _think_ of getting into a real relationship. Um, is that a problem?"

Misty's eye twitched. "Yes," she snarled. "It is. I haven't spent the last five thousand years slumbering in mortal form after mortal form just to run into you again and find out you want to wait a few more years before getting into a serious relationship, a relationship which never technically _ended_, our deaths notwithstanding."

"Oh." Ash looked down and shuffled his feet a little. "Um, I'm sorry?"

Misty growled loudly, her hair standing up and causing Ash to yelp and Pikachu to hop off his shoulder and hide behind his trainer's legs. "Oh, just kiss me already, you idiot."

Ash blinked. "Huh? Wait a min-" He was cut off as Misty grabbed him by the front of his shirt, pulled him close, and forcibly kissed him, hard, right on the mouth. Ash's eyes widened in amazement.and then they lost focus and fell closed as he began kissing her back. There was even some tongue action, which felt kind of weird since Misty's tongue was a bit bigger and flatter than his, due to its being like a cat's.

Dawn's jaw dropped.

"Why can't anyone kiss me like that?!" Brock complained, trying to get some feeling back into his limbs.

"Pikapi pipi Pikachu," Pikachu said, shaking his head in amusement. _It's about darn time!_

As the kiss between Ash and Misty deepened, the boy started glowing brilliantly, much to the surprise of those who were watching. Their eyes widened with awe as Ash's form grew brighter and started to grow, even while still maintaining his kiss with Misty, his figure changing to become less like that of a human's and more like something else altogether, something rather leonine in build. Finally, Misty pulled back from the kiss and opened her eyes, looking adoringly up at Ash, who was now a few inches taller than she was. "My dearest Leono.husband, soulmate, and consort.at last, you have returned."

Ash had gone from being a regular human Pokemon trainer to some kind of half-human half-Pokemon creature, looking a lot like a humanoid Luxray. His skin was covered mostly in black fur, with a light blue face, ears, waist, and legs, giving him a rather dark appearance. A long tail with a four-pointed yellow star at the tip grew from his rear. The front of his arms was black, while the underside was blue with three yellow rings per limb. His face looked very fierce and much like that of a lion's, with a small red nose protruding outwards from his face, a mouth full of fangs, and slanted gold eyes with brown irises which granted him the power of X-ray vision. His large round blue ears stuck out from the side of his head, framing his face along with the long bushy black mane spreading outward from the back of his head. His body was heavily toned and extremely muscular, and both Dawn and Misty couldn't help running their eyes up and down his handsome form, drinking in his masculine physique, for he was truly a god. Brock looked on with pure envy, wishing his body was even half as ripped as Ash's. It didn't help that the former human didn't wear much in the way of clothes, either. A white kilt with gold thread depicting wild Luxray and Persians hunting down their prey hung down from his waist. His pawed feet were in sandals just the right shape and size for him. Enormous gold bracers with elaborate hieroglyphics covered his forearms and knuckles. A white cape with a rampant Luxray in gold extended down his back to the ground, fastened to ceremonial armor covering his shoulders and upper body, with several large jewels in the shapes of scarabs, cat's eyes, and sun disks set into the front. The edges of his ears were pierced by several large gold rings. His hat had been transformed into a red and black striped pharaonic headdress going down both sides of his face with a large blue Pokeball emblem on the top above his forehead, with a stylized Pidgeot and Arbok head poking out right underneath it. Ash knelt before Misty, took her hand, and bowed his head in respect. "Beloved Bast.wife and Queen.I am honored to be your mate once again." His voice was much deeper and had a rich tone to it, but it was still Ash.

Dawn fell to her knees in disbelief and horror. Brock shook his head incredulously. "No way.if she kissed me, would I look nearly as good as that?!"

"It is so good to see you again," Misty said, hugging Ash as he rose to his feet. "I have waited for so long."

"As have I," agreed Ash, returning the hug. "But now we are together again.and soon, our family shall be reunited once more."

_Great,_ Pikachu thought to himself, slowly creeping away and trying not to make any loud noises. _That's wonderful. I'm really happy for the both of you, honestly I am. Now, I'm just going to get out of here before your biological instincts kick in and compel you to eat me._

"Where are you going, Pikachu?" Ash asked, causing Pikachu to stiffen and stop in his tracks.

Very tense, and trying as hard as he could not to smell like fear (since he was sure that Ash would be able to detect something like that now), Pikachu slowly turned around and swallowed hard, seeing that Ash's face was only inches away from his own. He had knelt down to see Pikachu better, and as a result gave the electric mouse a very good look at his large fangs. Pikachu tried not to imagine them digging into his flesh. "Pi Pikachu chapi pika kachu chupi," he said nervously. _Oh, nowhere, what made you think I was going someplace?_

Ash blinked, puzzled. Then he frowned, looking discomfited. "Pikachu.are you _afraid_ of me?"

Pikachu laughed nervously. "Cha." _A little._

Ash didn't look happy with this response. "Why?"

_Well,_ Pikachu explained. _It might have something to do with you being a big scary predatory cat. The same kind of big scary predatory cat that tends to eat little rodents like me for breakfast._

"Oh." To Pikachu's surprise, Ash started laughing. "Pikachu, you don't need to be scared of me! You're my best friend, practically my brother, I'd never eat you!"

Pikachu's shoulders slumped in relief. "Pi Pikachu?" _You wouldn't?_

"Of course not! I was going to ask you to come live with us; you're a part of the family too, after all!" Ash said firmly.

Pikachu sighed gratefully, his tension fading away. "Pi Pikapi, pipi Pikachu." _Thank you, Ash. I'd be honored to come live with you. _"Pika pika cha pichu chachu." _So long as nobody tries to eat me, of course._

"Don't worry," Ash said. "Nobody's going to eat you while I'm around!" He extended an arm, and Pikachu cried out happily and eagerly ran up it, taking his usual place on Ash's shoulder. The armor felt a bit weird, but he was sure he'd get used to sitting on it eventually.

Misty sighed happily, watching the big burly Luxray-ish Ash being so gentle and caring with Pikachu. "Is it any wonder I fell in love with him?" She turned to Dawn, who glanced up at her in trepidation. "And now, my daughter, it's your turn."

"W-w-wait!" Dawn protested, jumping to her feet and stepping back. "I-I can't! I can't be your daughter! Like I told you, I already have a mom, I can't just dump her for another, even if you are supposed to be the reincarnation of the one I had thousands of years ago!"

"She will not stop being your mother even if you become my daughter again. I was even going to suggest that she come and stay with us in our palace, she's part of the family too, now."

"Oh, could my mom stay too?" Ash asked. "None of our cooks back in Pokegypt make food as well as she does! Plus, I need someone to do my laundry."

Misty rolled her eyes. "Ash, we have servants for that. And that's not exactly a very nice thing to make your mother do."

Ash fidgeted, looking embarrassed. "Oh. Sorry. Um, can she still stay with us?"

Misty nodded. "Of course. But as the mother of my royal husband, she need not do servant's work. Not unless she wants to, of course. She'll need some way to keep busy.and not pry into our love lives! That's private information!" She turned back to Dawn. "Would letting your mother stay make you feel better about this, darling?"

"Well, a little, but.no!" Dawn cried, panicking and on the verge of tears. "I mean, you're asking me to give up everything here! My hopes, my dreams, hell, my very humanity! How am I supposed to just let all of that go?! I like being me! I like being Dawn! I don't want to be this.this Sekhmet, whoever she is! I don't know her at all!"

Misty put her hands on Dawn's cheeks to keep her head from shaking, forcing the girl to look her directly in the eye. "Dawn! Calm down. Listen to me. You know Sekhmet as well as you know yourself, for she is you. She is your truest, innermost self, embodying your fullest potential and all of your deepest and most heartfelt longings and desires. You sacrifice nothing in becoming her.for she is all that you are, and more. She is the Lightbringer who instills hope in the hearts of the people of the world. She is my firstborn and beloved daughter, born from the love of your father and I. She is the goddess Sekhmet. And she is you, Dawn. You are she and she is you. Let go of your fears, discard the anxieties that hold you back, and just relax.so that you may become who you were always fated to be."

Misty waited for a moment, staring unblinkingly into Dawn's eyes, until the girl's breathing and heart rate slowed and she no longer reeked of fear. Then, she bent close and breathed divine wind into Dawn's mouth, their lips only millimeters apart. From Brock's angle, it looked as if the two were kissing, and he found himself aroused at the possibility of some girl-on-girl action. Ash just crossed his arms and waited with Pikachu for his daughter to be reborn.

Misty let go of Dawn and stepped back as the girl gasped, her eyes rolling back in her head. Her body trembled and shivered, as if from extreme cold. And then she began to glow, far more brilliantly than Ash had when he had transformed, and it seemed as if a ray of sunlight shone down from above to illuminate her. This was not because she was more powerful than her parents, though she might be one day, rather it was her element rejoicing in her return, for she was the Lightbringer and the light was her dominion.

As the glow around Dawn faded to reveal her new form, the sunbeam remained, creating an otherworldly radiance about her. She had become a humanoid shiny Luxio, which made some sense since her father was a Luxray. Her body had matured and grown taller in the transformation, so she now looked several years older, in her late teens, and rather shapely at that. (Brock noticed, sad to say.) She wore beautiful white robes with gold trim that seemed to luminesce on their own and did nothing to conceal her lovely features. Her hands and feet were golden, and her body was covered in blue fur on top and black on the bottom. She wore sandals on her feet suited for her feline paws. A white kilt made from some kind of strange cloth that was able to luminesce all by itself was wrapped around her waist and upper legs, making her glow even brighter. Similar radiant material was used to create a white top which covered her shoulders and chest, but revealed her belly and the bottom of her breasts. A long black tail ending in a golden four-pointed star stuck out from the back of her kilt, the star shining almost like a miniature sun. Four gold bands engraved with hieroglyphs were wrapped around her wrists, two per arm, and she had a few rings on her fingers. Several chains bearing ankhs, scarabs, and other mystical amulets hung from her neck. Her blue hair had darkened to a blackish-blue and hung down her back and over her shoulders. Two tufts stuck out to the sides on either side of her head, framing her gold-furred face, small red nose, and pretty blue eyes. A small golden circlet ran around her head, just above her large yellow ears, with a small Arbok rising from the front protectively. She held a long wooden staff in her right hand, with numerous glowing symbols carved into it.

She let out a deep breath, examining her new, or rather old, body. "I.I am reborn," she whispered. She looked up at Ash and Misty, tears welling up in her eyes. "Mother.Father.thank you so much! How I have longed for this day!"

"As have I," said Misty demurely, unashamed to find herself crying as well. She spread her arms wide. "Come to your mother, my little Sekhmet. It has been far, far too long." With a sob of joy, Dawn ran over and embraced her mother, and Misty closed her arms around the new goddess's back, and Ash wrapped his arms around both of them in a heartwarming family hug. Pikachu chirped happily, glad he could partake in such a blessed reunion.

"Uh, hello?" Brock spoke up, ruining the moment. "Um, I'm still here. You kind of forgot about me for a minute there." The trio separated, exchanging embarrassed glances and not quite meeting Brock's gaze. (Then again, it was hard to tell if he had one, since he had no visible eyes.) "Yeah. So. Since I'm pretty sure I'm not the reincarnation of some ancient Pokegyptian deity.what's to become of me?" There was an unhappy look on his face. He did not like the thought that he might be discarded, after all the adventures and hard times he had been through with his friends over the years, just because he did not share the same great destiny or divinity as they.

"You're more than welcome to come with us, if you like," Misty offered.

"Yeah, we need to someone to make food for us," Ash said, causing Dawn to elbow him. "Ow! What?!"

Brock frowned in thought. "Would I have to be changed into a cat-thing like you guys?"

"Only if you want to be changed," Misty said.

"Hmm." Brock rubbed his chin. He did in fact want to be changed, if it meant looking anywhere near as buff as Ash did. Still, he wasn't sure if it was worth becoming a servant to gods rather than pursuing his dreams as a Pokemon breeder.

Noticing his indecision, Dawn said, "There'll be pretty women. Lots of them."

"I'm in!" Brock said eagerly. Pikachu and Misty rolled their eyes, not surprised that that had worked. "And I think I'd like to be changed, too! Hit me! Um, not literally, I mean," he said quickly, eyeing Misty's sharp claws, Ash's muscles, and Dawn's staff anxiously.

"Very well." Misty walked towards Brock. He tensed with anticipation, sweating and practically quivering with glee as she came very close to him and leaned towards his face, assuming she was about to kiss him. Dawn grimaced in disgust, and Ash glared at Brock as if to warn him not to think such lecherous thoughts about his wife, but it was hard not to when the woman in question was so gorgeous. (If not quite human.)

He was understandably disappointed when, instead of kissing him, she just breathed into his open mouth. It was still kind of arousing, but not really what he had hoped for, though it did cause his body to tingle in a strange way. That tingling increased as his body began to glow, and he found himself growing bigger and bigger.

Until the light faded and he found he was very tall, so high up that his head brushed some of the branches of the trees behind him. Why, he even towered over Ash, who had gotten pretty big after transforming into a god. "Wow, this is awesome!" he shouted, rejoicing in how deep, booming, and manly his voice sounded. It was then he noticed that Dawn was trying very hard not to laugh, Ash had a smile on his face, Misty looked somewhat embarrassed, and Pikachu had fallen off Ash's shoulder and was rolling on the ground laughing. Brock frowned, puzzled. "What's so funny? And why do I feel hungry all of a sudden?"

"Ah.that might be because." Misty started.

"You're a Snorlax," Ash said, causing Dawn to finally burst into laughter.

Brock looked down at himself in horror. "Whaaaaaat?!" Much to his dismay, he found that he was indeed a Snorlax, with an enormous tan belly, dark blue fur, large clawed feet with practically no legs, and thick arms. He was wearing a belt made of several pieces of rope braided together with a couple of large square pieces of brightly colored cloth hanging down between his legs on his front and back. His Pokeballs were hanging from the belt as well. He was also wearing a white khafiya on his head with holes in it for his two large and vaguely feline ears to poke out of. "What-how--why the hell am I a Snorlax?! I wanted to be buff and handsome, like Ash!"

Ash blinked. "You did?"

"Oh," said Misty. "You should have specified that, then."

Brock grimaced. "I.sort of assumed I'd just become a big and handsome cat guy automatically, like you guys."

Dawn shook her head. "It doesn't work that way. We look so attractive because we're gods, and therefore are supposed to be more beautiful and physically perfect than regular mortals. Unlike in most TF stories, you don't just become more physically attractive by being transformed into a Pokemon or human/Pokemon hybrid. When magic is involved, as it usually is, the form taken often depends on the will of the caster. If you had specified you wanted to be burly and handsome, my mother might have made you that way, but since you didn't."

"I got turned into this," Brock said unhappily. "Why am I a Snorlax, anyway? I thought they were bears!"

"You have cat ears," Ash pointed out.

Snorlax sweatdropped. "And that's enough for a cat goddess to turn me into one?!"

"Apparently," Misty said sadly. "I'm really sorry, Brock. I only made a Snorlax because." She glared at Ash, causing him to wince. "_Some_one mentioned somebody to cook for us, which naturally made me think of a Snorlax, since their sometimes picky eating despite having the ability to devour just about anything allows some of them to be trained as world-class chefs, although not all their dishes are fit for human.or other sighed. "I don't suppose you can turn me into something else?"

Misty shook her head. "Your form's been set, I can't change you again. I'm afraid you'll be stuck like this."

Brock grimaced, but tried to find the bright side of his situation. "Well.some ladies like their men big, don't they?" he said, cheering up immediately at the thought. "And they also love a man who can cook his own meals.plus, more of Snorlax's body mass is muscle than fat, so it's not like I'm a flabby, repulsive kind of guy! And now that my skin's so thick, and my ears are too high up for anyone to reach, I bet not even Croagunk can stop me from hitting on women now!"

Taking his cue, Croagunk popped out of his Pokeball and delivered a precisely pinpointed Poison Jab to a specific pressure point on Brock's gut. His face turned blue and he toppled over backwards, causing the ground to shake as he hit the floor. "Then again.I could be wrong." Croagunk croaked to himself in amusement. Pikachu laughed even harder.

"Well, now that that's taken care of," Misty said brightly. "Our family is almost complete. I just need to go retrieve our son and Dawn's brother, Ta-Hotep, and then we may rebuild our kingdom."

"I wonder what mortal form he has taken in this world?" Dawn wondered. "It has been so long since I've last seen him.I can barely even remember what he looks like!"

"Do you know where he is, Misty?" Ash asked his wife.

She nodded, her expression grave. "I do. However.this is something I wish to do on my own. I will send you all to where our new palace shall be erected, and collect Ta-Hotep by myself."

Her family looked alarmed like this. "What? Why can't we go with you?" asked Ash with a frown.

"Yes, I want to see my brother!" Dawn agreed.

"Pi Kapichu Pika Pikachu?" Pikachu asked. _Is something the matter?_

"If any of you came along, you would only get in the way," Misty said. "This is something better left to one person, which is why I have to do this.alone." She summoned her mist before they could argue, causing clouds to form around Ash, Dawn, and Brock. "I'll see you at home soon.hopefully with Ta-Hotep."

"Wait.what do you mean, hopefully?!" asked an alarmed Dawn.

"Pika!" _Stop!_ Cried Pikachu.

"Misty!" Ash yelled.

"Can somebody help me up, please?" Brock groaned.

And then they were all gone, leaving Misty to herself. She exhaled, an unhappy look on her face. "And now comes the hardest task of all."

...  
"That was so sweet!" Mew gushed, hugging herself happily. "I just _love_ reunions between loved ones! It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! More than usual, anyway."

"So, my old friend Ash Ketchum is the reincarnation of an ancient god." mused Mewtwo, ignoring his companion's comments. "Hmm, I knew there was something different about him."

"He's so dreamy! Isn't he?" Mew asked him, blue eyes sparkling.

Mewtwo glowered and glanced at his arms, which were as bony and thin as ever. He flexed one, trying to make a muscle. "Well, I suppose he's somewhat well-built," he said grudgingly. "It doesn't look like his intellect has increased very much, though."

"Well, you can't have everything," Mew commented wisely.

Mewtwo raised an eyebrow. "Misty seems to have it all. Very good looks, a keen mind, a loving family and husband, divinity and immortality, exceptional power and dominion over feline Pokemon."

"Yeah, but she snores. Really loudly," Mew said matter-of-fact.

Mewtwo blinked. "Does she now?"

Mew nodded. "Yeah, and she can't cook worth shoot. Why do you think they're keeping Brock around?"

"Ah." Mewtwo rubbed his chin for a moment. "Then.was the Snorlax thing _really_ an accident, or.?"

Mew laughed. "Maybe yes, maybe no. Let's just say some things are not meant to reproduce."

Mewtwo raised an eyebrow. "Coming from the progenitor of all life, that's.somewhat disturbing." Mew threw popcorn at him. "Will you stop doing that?"

"No."

Mewtwo sighed and sat back in his chair. "You are _so_ immature." Mew stuck her tongue out at him to prove his point.  
...

Norman, the handsome dark-haired Gym Leader of Petalburg City, sauntered into the living room where his lovely wife Caroline was lounging on the couch, carrying a bottle of champagne in one hand and two wineglasses in the other, a broad smile on his face. "Well, look what the Vigoroth dragged in," she said seductively, shifting in her seat to make room for her husband, showing off quite a bit of leg in the process.

Norman plopped down beside Caroline, set the glasses down on the coffee table before them, uncorked the champagne, and poured it into the glasses. "Max is in bed, and May's outside practicing with her Pokemon-"

"The poor thing," Caroline said sadly, shaking her head. "She did so poorly in that one contest in Johto that she came home in tears, and has been trying to rebuild her confidence in her coordinating skill ever since!"

"So we have the house to ourselves," Norman finished, trying to steer her back on subject. Not that he wasn't sympathetic for his daughter's plight, but he had different things on his mind at the moment. He handed Caroline one of the glasses and took the other to himself. "Meaning we can do whatever we want, Mrs. Maple.as long as it doesn't wake Max, that is." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, and she laughed. "Happy anniversary, honey."

"Happy anniversary, dear." They clinked wine glasses, then leaned in for a kiss.

When suddenly there was a knock on the door, breaking the mood. Norman grimaced and gave an apologetic look to his wife. "Just a sec, I'll get that." He put his glass down and quickly went into the front hall, pulling open the door just as whoever was outside started knocking again. "I'm sorry, but we don't want any-" He started, only to stop dead mid-sentence when he found himself staring into the blue slitted eyes of Misty, reincarnation of Bast.

"Hello, Norman," the cat-woman said, offering a reluctant grin. "Do you have a moment?"

She explained everything to them, sitting across the kitchen table from them as Caroline sipped her tea anxiously and Norman listened with an unreadable expression on his face. She told them how she was the reincarnation of a goddess from ancient Pokegypt, and how she and her family had been killed thousands of years ago only to be reborn in the present age as human trainers. She explained to them how she had been awakened to her true divine form, and was now seeking out the rest of her family so that she could awaken them as well so they could reestablish their utopian kingdom. She even demonstrated a number of her powers to squelch any skepticism and prove her divinity.

"I can understand why you would want to find your family so badly, so that they could rejoin you," Norman said after a moment. "However, that still doesn't explain what you're doing here."

Misty sighed. She had known this moment would come, and had not been looking forward to it. "I have already found and awakened my husband and daughter. The only member of my family still unaccounted for is my son, Ta-Hotep. My son." She gave the two humans a hard look. "Who happens to have been reborn as your son, Max."

They started at this, naturally. "Th-there must be some mistake!" Caroline protested. "Our son is a wonderful boy, but he's certainly not.not a god, or anything like that!"

"What makes you so certain it's our son, and not some other boy, who is the reincarnation of your child?" asked Norman with a frown.

"As a great deity, I am capable of perceiving the threads of destiny," Misty explained. "They are what guided me to the souls of my husband and daughter, bound in mortal flesh. Those same threads are what took me here and told me that Max is indeed the reincarnation of my son, Ta-Hotep."

"Well, how do you know you perceived these threads correctly?!" Caroline asked angrily, standing up from her seat, nearly spilling her tea all over the table in the process.

Norman put a calming hand on her arm and gently pushed her back into her chair. "I would like to know the same thing," he said, though less emotionally as his wife. "How do you know?"

"Every living thing in this world is connected by strings of a sort, threads of fate and energy, linking all creation together. These threads resonate in specific ways, and those who can understand these resonances can learn great knowledge. Your son's thread resonates with intensity beyond that of most mortals, an intensity that can only mean he is a god hidden in human form. What's more, I know the scent of his soul from long ago, and it permeates this household, banishing any doubt from my mind that he is the one I seek," Misty explained.

"And now that you've found him, what do you intend to do?" Norman asked.

"I intend to banish the illusion that is his human form so that he may become a god once more," Misty told them, the pain on their faces cutting deeply into her heart. "I will then take him back home to rejoin his family so we may be whole once more."

"You can't have him!" Caroline shrieked, standing up again and really knocking over her teacup this time. "You can't have my baby! I don't care if he _is_ your son from thousands of years ago, he's our son now, and you have no right to take him!!!"

This caused Misty's hair to rise a little. "I have _every_ right," she growled. "He is as much my son as he is yours. _He_ has just as much right to know me and his other family as he does to know this one. I am his mother too, and I love him just as much as you do, and only want the best for him, just like you. And that's why I have to take him away."

She knew almost at once that was the wrong thing to say. Caroline glared at her with sheer hate, while Norman's expression darkened. "You don't think we can give him the best life possible?"

Misty took a deep breath and started again, making sure to choose her words with care. "I apologize. I did not mean to imply that you were bad parents or that Max would be better off with me than you. Let me explain what I mean.

"I have foreseen that if I leave Max in your custody, there is a good chance that he will grow up to become a great trainer. He might even become a Pokemon master. There's a pretty good chance that he may save the world, or help someone else to save it, and be revered by people everywhere. And then, after living for an indeterminate number of years, possibly marrying, possibly fathering children, he will die. He will be buried in the ground, where, over a period of many years, his flesh will atrophy and rot and be devoured by worms until he is nothing more than a withered old skeleton, and eventually not even that, since the mortals of this day and age no longer use the mummification technique we Pokegyptians mastered centuries ago. That's assuming there's a corpse to be found, and he isn't killed and eaten by Pokemon out in the wild, or his body isn't destroyed in one of the hundreds of possible ways. Regardless, he will eventually die, maybe decades from now, or maybe even next week. That is the price of mortality."

The humans didn't take this very well. Caroline looked rather sick, and Norman had gone pale, but there was a look of resigned acceptance on his face. Misty continued. "If I take Max from here and turn him into a god, his life will be radically different. He will live in a grand palace and have almost anything he desires while being doted on by his loving parents and servants. However, he will also be taught strictly on just about every subject matter that a future leader needs to know: history, geography, sociology, political sciences, mathematics, the humanities, science, magic, leadership, trust, warfare, religion, and whatever other knowledge and skills he will need to one day rule his own kingdom. And as a prince and god, he _will_ rule, it is in his blood and destiny. He will became a great figure, a leader of both man and Pokemon. As a deity, he will be worshipped by hundreds, if not thousands, and have the power to answer prayers and spread joy all over the world. And, of course, he will be immortal, able to weather the centuries easily and continue living when many others would die, immune to frailty, age, and sickness. He can still die, but it will be less likely than it would if he remained mortal. I know as well as you do that every parent wants their child to live so that a piece of them shall always continue in the world, and by making Max immortal I will ensure that a part of you will remain on this Earth, for as long as he does.

"There is, however, a downside to this. Max's human body is still quite young, not even near puberty yet. As a result, due to his lack of physical maturity, if and when I help him awaken to godhood.all his memories of his time as Max will fail to be imprinted on his soul and his enhanced brain. He will forget having every known you, having ever been Max, having ever been your son. He will still be your son biologically, for a bit of your DNA will remain in him even after he has been transmuted into an immortal god, but he will never know that you were his parents. And.to spare him unnecessary confusion and pain.I intend to leave it that way, should I take him with me. You may visit him if you wish, but he must never know that you were ever his parents, for it might confuse or hurt him and even trigger a psychological breakdown. And that is something neither of us wants."

Misty sat back in her chair, examining Norman and Caroline and gauging their reaction to everything she had said. Caroline's face had gone white, and tears were running down her face. She looked at the table, unable to meet Misty's or her husband's eyes. Norman had also gone pale, but had crossed his arms over his chest and was chewing his lip in thought. Misty sighed. "And those are your options. I can leave, and your son will remain mortal and possibly do great things and die. Or, I can make him a god, but force him to forget everything he knew as a human child, including you. But he will do even greater things than he might have as a man, and live forever. Which of these fates will be your son's is now up to you. I leave it in your hands."

The two said nothing for a moment. Then, Caroline asked, "You said that he won't remember because he hasn't hit puberty yet. Well.wh-what if you waited until he'd matured that much, then changed him? If he wanted to be changed, I mean? Then he'd remember _both_ his families, and everything would be all right!" There was a desperate look in her eyes. It broke Misty's heart to know she was going to be forced to shatter another mother's hopes.

"Before he died in his previous lifetime, my son had not yet reached puberty.or what passes for it, among we gods," she explained sadly. "If I were to wait until Max hit puberty as a mortal, then transformed him, he would be reverted back to his godling form, before divine adolescence. He would remember his life with you, but.his body wouldn't be able to handle going through puberty _twice_, especially since maturation for gods is more stressful and demanding than it is for mortals, due to the power levels involved. If he were to hit puberty, then be regressed into a godling, then hit puberty _again_, the strain would kill him. And there's no telling how long it will take for him to be reincarnated again, not until he dies, anyway, and the threads are reset."

"So, basically, it's either take Max now... or wait an unknown period of time, until he's reborn elsewhere, and you try again, with a different set of parents," Norman interpreted.

Misty nodded. "And so, the decision lies with you. What shall become of your son and mine? Will he be a mortal, or a god?" She waited a moment, not expecting either parent to have a response right away. She was right, they didn't. "If you are uncertain, would you like to ask Max his opinion on the matter? Since this concerns him most of all, he deserves a say in this."

"Absolutely not!" Caroline spluttered in alarm.

"I believe what my wife means," Norman said, laying a reassuring hand on Caroline, "Is that Max, while a clever boy, is.well, too young to make a decision like this. While he's a good boy and I trust him unquestioningly.this is something that could change his life forever. It may be cruel of me to say this, but I'm not sure this is something we can just let him decide for himself." Misty nodded. She was unsurprised by this. Norman sighed and looked down, drumming his fingers on the table. "This isn't an easy choice you've given us," he said after a moment. "We'll need time to-"

He was interrupted by the screen door only a few feet away opening up as May came in from the backyard, looking exhausted and soaked with sweat. Her Beautifly was sitting on her shoulder, wings and antenna drooping, while her Skitty and Eevee were clustered at her heels, uncharacteristically worn out for such usually energetic Pokemon. "Phew, that was a workout," she said, wiping some sweat from her brow. "Hey mom, do we have any lemon-" She trailed off when she saw her parents' grave expressions and the inhuman creature at the kitchen table. Her pupils shrank in fright. "Waaaaaahhhh!!"

Skitty instantly perked up and started 'nyaing' rapidly. _Oh boy! The mistress is here! Yaaaayyyy! _The kitten ran over and pawed eagerly at Misty's leg until the goddess reached down, picked her up, and put her in her lap. Skitty happily curled up in her lap and allowed Misty to stroke her, as the deity gave the stunned May an apologetic look.

One of May's Pokeballs popped open, and Munchlax materialized on the kitchen floor. He scratched his rear and glanced at Misty. "Munchlax." _Oh, it's you._ Disinterested, he walked over to the fridge, opened it, and started rummaging through it. "Munchlax munch munch Munchlax." _I'm hungry. What's to eat?_ Misty sweatdropped.

May collapsed against the door behind her, staring at Misty in horror. "M-Mom? Dad?! What's going on?!"

"Ah." Norman glanced uncertainly at his wife, who stood up.

"May, dear..I think there's something we need to talk about." Caroline said soothingly, taking May's arm.

"Yes, it's.about your brother." Norman said, standing up as well. He glanced at Misty. "We need to talk to her about this, as Max's sister she has a right to know what's going on. Is that a problem?"

Misty shook her head. "Go right ahead." Norman and Caroline quickly led a dazed and confused May back outside, Eevee managing to follow them just before the door closed. That left Misty alone in the kitchen with Skitty, who was perfectly content to be petted by her divine mistress, and Munchlax, who was perfectly content devouring everything in the fridge. Misty dampened her extranormal senses and super-sensitive hearing, not wanting to listen to or empathically pick up on the no doubt heated and painful discussion-and argument-probably going on outside regarding Max's future. It was hard enough seeing the looks on Norman and Caroline's faces as she explained that she wanted to take their son away forever and destroy all his memories of them, she didn't want to hear their thoughts screaming inside her head as well.

Shifting Skitty from her lap to the crook of her arm, she stood up and walked over to the fridge, careful not to step on any of the messes and half-eaten piles of food scattered about Munchlax as he ravenously devoured anything he could get his hands on. Reaching into the fridge over the walking garbage can's head, she pulled out some milk, opened it up, and drank right from the carton, guzzling down two-thirds of its contents. She licked her lips when she was done, then lowered the carton to Skitty's level, allowing her to sip from the lip of the carton and share some of the same milk that her goddess had just drank from. Misty wasn't sure if Skitty knew this, but the little pink cat was radically elongating her lifespan by drinking from the same carton as her deity. She wasn't sure what effect it would have on any humans who might drink it later, so she gave the rest to Munchlax for disposal. He greedily consumed the milk, and the plastic bottle it came in, then went back to gnawing on some unidentifiable substance that May had probably created in another one of her failed attempts at cooking. Munchlax, naturally, was the only creature who could stomach such abominations.

Leaving the bottomless pit on legs to his feast, Misty walked back to the table, sat down, and resumed petting Skitty, blessing the kitten with increased intelligence, strength, vitality, and fortune in the process. She realized she could easily take this opportunity to spirit Max away right under his family's noses, but that wouldn't rest well with her. She was already going to have to live with enough guilt, taking Max from them and turning him into someone completely different, she didn't need to feel bad about outright stealing him too.

So she waited for Norman, Caroline and May to finish talking, her concentration drifting off so that time would seem to pass faster for her. And so the next half an hour went by pretty quickly, until the screen door opened and the trio came back inside, without May's Pokemon, which Misty could sense had been returned to their Pokeballs. They all looked tired and worn out; May's face was pale and a look of shock and disbelief filled her eyes, Caroline's hair was in disarray and her face was stained by tears, and Norman just looked haggard and many years older than he actually was. Sitting down across from Misty, Norman said, "We've made our decision."

"Okay," Misty said, pitting Skitty on the ground. The Pokemon was disappointed, but the goddess couldn't afford any distractions at this critical moment.

"You can take Max," Norman said after a moment. "On one condition. Well, two really. We want to be able to visit him anytime we want."

"Done," Misty said instantly.

Norman continued. "And second, we want you to take May with you."

Misty blinked in surprise. "I'm sorry?"

"I don't want to lose my brother," May whispered hoarsely, looking at the ground.

"What May means to say is that.even if he doesn't remember her, doesn't know who she is, she wants to stay with her brother," Norman translated. "I don't care what you have to do, just find some position for her in your palace that will let her keep a close eye on Max and allow her to tell us how he's doing."

"And she has to be able to come home whenever she wants!" Caroline said fiercely. "We don't.we don't want to lose our other child."

"Easily done," Misty said, her anxiety lessening somewhat. She allowed herself to feel a moment of joy that she would be able to see her son again, but only for a moment, she wasn't done with the negotiations just yet. "She can serve as my son's servant, playmate, and boon-companion. Not exactly a best friend, per se, he'd want children more his own age for that, but she'd be able to watch him and care for him and be with him when we cannot. Is this acceptable?"

Norman glanced at his daughter. "May?"

"I can do that," May said quietly.

"Then it's a deal," Norman said to Misty.

"Thank you very much," Misty said, bowing her head to the humans. "You have no idea how much I appreciate this."

"Just.just take good care of my son, please?" Caroline gasped, her voice rather raw. "And don't let anything bad happen to him or my daughter. They're.she's all we have, now."

"I swear on the river Nile that May will always be safe in my house as long as she stays true to her duty and to her charge," Misty promised, invoking one of the most powerful and binding oaths of the gods.

"And Max?" Caroline pressed.

Misty smiled faintly. "I am his mother, just as you are. As such, you should know that you need no binding oath from me, it is already a given that I would lay down my life for him." Caroline nodded, accepting this. Misty rose from her seat. "With your leave, I will go now and awaken my son. Unless you want one last moment with Max before he-" She cut herself off before she could finish her sentence and say, _before he ceases to exist as you knew him?_

Norman bit his lip and thought for a moment. "No," he said finally. "It.it would only hurt for us to wake him up, for him to be conscious when it happens, to be aware of.of being erased." He swallowed. "And I don't think I could bare going up there and just looking at him sleep without waking him up.it'll feel like he's dead already. It's probably better if we just.just leave it like this. So our last memory of him won't be tainted by.by watching him disappear. To spare him, and all of us, a little pain." Caroline burst into tears and turned away. May's eyes quivered. Misty could understand why they would do this. It was clear that all of them would be hurting from this for a very long time. They didn't need to add any more hurt to their already-heavy burden.

"Very well," Misty said. "If that is what you wish, then I shall go up to him alone." Norman was right, it was most definitely better this way. She turned to May. "Before I go up.I will need to change you so that you will be better able to serve and protect my son. To make you a little more like him. Is this all right with you?"

May trembled, understandably frightened at the prospect.but bravely nodded. "Yes," she said. "I'll.I'll do whatever it takes to help my brother." She hesitated. "I.I won't."

"Lose your memories? No, you shall lose none of them," Misty said. "Otherwise, you would no longer be your parents' daughter, and I do not wish to cause them any more pain." Caroline let out a sob at this, and Norman looked away, but neither said anything.

May swallowed and stood up straight. "Then.then I-I'm ready."

Misty smiled, touched by May's sacrifice. "Good girl," she whispered, leaning close and breathing in the young teenager's mouth.

May gasped and stiffened as her body suddenly began glowing radiantly, filling the kitchen with light and causing Munchlax to briefly glance away from the refrigerator to see what the big deal was, before concluding it was unimportant and going back to his smorgasbord. Caroline cried out and clapped her hands to her mouth. Norman's eyes widened in amazement. Skitty squealed excitedly at seeing the shiny thing and ran around it in circles.

The light shortly faded away, revealing May's new form. Skitty was pleased right away, noticing how her trainer now looked a lot like herself. May had become a humanoid Skitty, her body covered in tan fur on her legs, chest, and face, and pink everywhere else. She was more modestly clad than any of the other female creatures Misty had transformed so far, wearing a rather shapeless dull gray tunic that went down to her knees, with a rope belt somehow holding her Pokeballs as well as a leather satchel that had once been her fanny pack. Her petite feet wore leather sandals small enough to fit her. A very slim tail grew out from the bottom rear of her tunic which abruptly swelled into a very large pink club-like form at the end with three hairs ending in yellow spheres growing from the tip. Her hair, now pink, had grown a little longer, causing her bangs to dangle in her face and the rest to hang down her back, two large ears with feathery tips growing from the top of her head. Her corneas had thankfully not been shrunken into the slits that most Skitty (or Brock) had, allowing her blue eyes to be seen. Those blue eyes widened in horror as May looked all over herself. "What.what did you do to me?!"

"I did as you allowed me to," Misty told her. "To better serve Max, you must become a bit less human and a bit more feline. Now you will fit in better with the rest of the palace and be able to participate more in whatever activities are necessary to entertain and enlighten Max."

May glanced at her parents anxiously, as if fearing their reaction to her new look. "Mom, Dad, is this okay?!"

They didn't hesitate for more than a second. "Of course it, honey," Caroline said, hugging her daughter. "Why wouldn't it be?" Skitty purred in agreement and rubbed up against May's legs, while Munchlax glanced at her, belched, then kept eating.

Norman nodded and stood up. "You may look different on the outside.but we know that you're still May, still our daughter, where it counts."

A flash of guilt stung Misty, since she knew the same could not be said of their other child, not for much longer, anyways. "I will go retrieve my son now," she told them. "May, wait for me in the front hall, we will depart together."

May nodded. "Of course." She quietly slipped from the room, went back into the front hall, and climbed the stairs to the second floor. It didn't take her long to find Max's room, his physical and psychic scent made it easy to locate. She crept into the room without a sound, careful not to let the door make too much noise. The lights were out and the windows were drawn shut, but the darkness didn't trouble Misty. She had perfect night vision after all, allowing her to see all the Pokemon-related toys and gadgets cluttering the room, as well as the big poster of Professor Oak hanging right over Max's bed. It made her smile to see this expression of her son's happiness as a human childhood.while at the same time sobering her because she knew she was about to end that childhood for good.

She walked across the room and sat on the edge of Max's bed, looking intently at the dark-haired lump under the covers, head turned away from her, deep asleep. As she watched, Max rolled over, muttering some unimportant nonsense, allowing Misty to see his face. Her heart swelled as she observed his closed eyes, small nose, and drooling mouth, finding him utterly adorable.and reminding her so much of her son, as he had been centuries ago. And she knew then it was time to make her child hers once more.

"My dearest Ta-Hotep," she whispered, scooting closer and extending one of her hands to gently brush against his cheek. "It has been far, far too long.you have been at the forefront of my thoughts for the last five thousand years. I have worried over your fate, prayed that you were safe and happy, longed to hold you in my arms once more.and now my son, my brave little warrior, at last we are reunited. Now, our family will be whole once again." She bent down over him, breathing on his face. "Awaken, my darling prince, so that we may go home." She kissed Max on the forehead and straightened up, waiting for the transformation to begin.

She didn't have to wait long. Max's small frame began to glow brightly, illuminating the dark room and causing light to dance upon the walls. Misty stared intently into the radiance, her godly eyes unbothered by the divine light, waiting and watching for her son to return to her. The light soon faded, but a residual glow remained, clinging to the changed boy lying in the bed like a halo. The no longer quite human figure stirred and pushed off the covers, sitting up, stretching his arms, and opening his mouth to let out a long yawn that degenerated into a yowl. He opened his eyes, blinking back sleep, and widened them when he saw Misty sitting just a few inches away. "Mama?"

Misty's heart swelled, and tears of joy ran down her cheeks. "My son.my darling Ta-Hotep.at last, you've returned to me!"

"Mama!" cried Ta-Hotep ecstatically as she grabbed him and held him to her chest. "You're here! It was dark and quiet for so long, and I was so lonely and afraid.but now you're here, and everything's right again!"

"That it is," Misty whispered, nuzzling her child and inhaling his scent, which had been absent for so long that she had nearly forgotten it. "That it is."

After several moments, she held her son away from her and just looked at him, drinking in all that he was with her eyes. Max, or rather Ta-Hotep, was a humanoid Shinx, no more than a cub, really. He had black fur on the lower half of his body and gold on the upper, much like his father and sister. Large oval ears with orange insides shaped like four-pointed stars stuck out from the sides of his head. A tail grew from his rear that ended in an orange four-pointed star. A pair of gold bands were wrapped around his wrists, hieroglyphs of protection inscribed on them. A black collar was wrapped around his neck with a large scarab jewel placed right over his Adam's apple. He had big white eyes with glowing orange pupils, lighting his face along with his radiant smile to show how overjoyed he was to be with his mother again. His head fur was shaped in a vague approximation of the hair he had had as a human child. He wore no clothing, but needed none, since he was still just a young godling. That would change when he got older. "My beautiful boy," Misty murmured, her glad heart singing. "You are just as I remembered you."

"And you're just as beautiful as always, Mama!" Ta-Hotep said. "But where's Father and Sekhmet?"

"They are waiting for us in our new home," Misty said. "Would you like to go see them?"

"Of course!" Ta-Hotep said. He blinked. "But.'new' home? What happened to our old one?"

Misty's happiness ebbed somewhat. "It was.destroyed, remember? In the battle with Apep."

Ta-Hotep's face fell. "Oh," he said quietly. "Now I remember.what.what happened after that? I remember the palace crumbling, and then." He shook his head in confusion.

"We all went to sleep for a very long time," Misty explained, which was not far from the truth. "But I woke up recently and was able to find your father and sister and wake them up as well, and then I came to find you. And now that all of us are awakened, we may rebuild our palace and form a new kingdom, to replace the one that was destroyed all those years ago."

Ta-Hotep frowned unhappily. "If it's been so long.then.then all of my friends are dead, aren't they? Even the other gods?"

"I don't know about them," Misty admitted. "They might have survived, they might not. But I'm afraid that all your mortal friends are dead, yes. But.well, look on the bright side!" She said quickly, noticing how gloomy her son became. "At least you still have us.and I'm sure you'll make new friends soon enough!"

"Okay," Ta-Hotep said, his spirits rising somewhat. "Let's go home, Mama. I want to see Father and Sekhmet!"

"In a moment," Misty said, standing up and setting her son on the ground. "First, we need to say farewell to the kind people who took care of you until I was able to come and get you."

"Okay," said Ta-Hotep, taking his mother's hand as she led him out of the dark bedroom and down the stairs to the first floor, where an anxious Norman, Caroline, and May were all waiting. The trio looked even more unnerved when they saw just how much the Max they all remembered had been transformed. The reborn god blinked at them in confusion, as puzzled by their appearance as he was by the architecture of the house they were in, unsurprising since his memory of the last few thousand years was a total blank. "Um.hi?" he said awkwardly, not liking the way his former family was all staring at him.

Caroline put on a somewhat fake smile and bent down to look her former son in the face. "Hello, young man," she said, voice wavering a little. "Do you know who we are?"

"Um." Ta-Hotep glanced uncertainly at Misty, then back at Caroline. "I'm sorry, I know you're the people who've been taking care of me while I've been asleep.but I'm afraid I don't know your names."

Misty felt another deep pang of guilt as she watched Caroline's heart break. Norman's face twisted in pain and he looked away, while May shook her head in sorrow. Barely managing to keep the smile on her face, Caroline said, "Th-that's all r-right, dear. My name is Caroline. This is my husband Norman, and your sis-I mean, my d-daughter May."

Ta-Hotep blinked and looked at May, who gave him a weak smile. "I don't really see a family resemblance." he murmured, causing Misty to smack him. "Ow!"

"It's not nice to say things like that to people's faces," she growled at him.

"Then I'm supposed to say it behind their backs?" Ta-Hotep asked. Misty smacked him again. "Ow!"

"No, you're not supposed to say it at all!" Misty hissed. "Not within earshot, anyway."

"Sorry, Mama."

"May looks different because she agreed to come back home with us, with her parent's permission, to be your servant and playmate," Misty explained.

"Oh, wow!" Ta-Hotep said, eyes lighting up. "That's awesome! We're gonna have a great time together!"

"Y-yeah," May said, straining to hold her smile. "I'll.have a great time.getting to know you, Ma-I mean." She glanced at Misty, who mouthed her son's name to her. "Ta-Hotep."

"This is gonna be so much fun!" Ta-Hotep said eagerly.

Misty shook Norman's hand, noting unhappily how limp and clammy his grip seemed at the moment. "Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for everything you have done for us, for my family. I promise you that you will not go unrewarded for this."

"That's.that's great," Norman said faintly, glancing at his wife, who was leaving the room so she wouldn't burst into tears in front of her former son. "We were.honored to help you, Queen Bast. Now, I.I suppose you should get going, back to your palace."

"Oh, yeah!" Ta-Hotep said, tugging at Misty's arm. "Come on, Mama, we have to get going! I can't wait to see Dad and Sekhmet!"

"Yes, I suppose we should get going," agreed Misty, knowing it would probably be best to get Ta-Hotep away from there as soon as possible before his ex-parents had a breakdown.

"Goodbye, dad," May said, hugging her father for a moment. "I promise I'll write, and be back soon to tell you about everything!"

"I look forward to it, sweetie," Norman said, actually meaning it.

"Thank you, yet again, for everything you've given to us," Misty said, taking Norman's hands and looking him in the eye. "I swear to you, I will not forget what you have done. I will find someway, somehow, to make it up.though I fear whatever reward I give you will never be enough to adequately fill the void that has opened in your life."

"No," Norman said sadly, much to Ta-Hotep's puzzlement. "I don't think it will, either." He watched sadly as his daughter, the goddess, and the boy who was no longer his son left through the front door, then slumped against the wall. He could hear Caroline crying in the kitchen. "It was supposed to be our anniversary." he whispered.

"Mama, why were those people so sad?" Ta-Hotep asked his mother as they walked outside.

May winced and looked away. Misty sighed and squeezed her son's hand as the magical mists swirled up around them. "I'll tell you when you're older," she said. "I'll tell you when you're older."

She had no intention of doing so. Some wounds didn't heal with time, and this was one of them. What she had done today would haunt her for the rest of her life, and she never wanted her son to know the price that had been paid for his rebirth. She never wanted him to know the price that had been paid for their happiness.

Mew was sniffing and crying into a handkerchief. "Oh! That was just._so sad_, wasn't it? My heart was breaking when I saw the look on their faces when they really understood that Max didn't remember them at all! Wasn't that horrible? I felt _so_ bad for them.and Max'll never understand that he hurt them, because then his heart'll be broken too! I can understand why Misty'd never want to tell him." Eyes watering, she glanced at Mewtwo. "Didn't it make you sad, too?"

"Mmm," Mewtwo grunted, slouching in his seat, arms folded across his chest. "I've seen sadder."

Mew scowled and hurled popcorn at him. "Mewtwo!"

"What?!" he snapped. "Get a grip, parents lose their children every day all over the world! If they're not leaving of their own accord, than they're being captured by Pokemon trainers, running away, or kidnapped either for ransom or so they can be sold in the human (or Pokemon) flesh trade as organ donors or sex toys! Norman and Caroline are getting off lucky, all their son's lost is his memory, he's getting immortality and great power to go with it! Plus, they'll be able to visit him whenever they want, even if he doesn't really know who they are! Most parents who lose their children never hear from them again and have to live with that sorrow for the rest of their lives! Compared to that, what Norman and Caroline are going through is Combusken feed!"

Mew glared at him. "Just because their tragedy's not as big in magnitude as others elsewhere in the world doesn't make it any less sad!"

Mewtwo sneered at her. "If your heart bleeds for every little bit of suffering and atrocity in the world, soon your veins will be totally dry."

_"At least it's better than having a heart of stone_!" she screamed back at him.

Mewtwo flinched and recoiled at this. Mew instantly turned her back to him so she wouldn't have to look at him anymore. That meant she also couldn't see the pained and regretful look on Mewtwo's face. He had probably deserved that. He knew he did. He knew he should apologize, too. But.

He clenched his teeth together. Darnit, he wasn't going to apologize for telling her the truth. Even if it did make her call him stone-hearted. And hurt her feelings. And.

No. No, he was not going to go down that road. He wasn't sorry, and absolutely did NOT feel bad about making her unhappy. No sir, not one bit. And even if he did, his pride refused to let him compromise himself by actually _apologizing_, implying that he had been wrong and that he was sorry. What a preposterous thought!

Right?

He sighed, slumping in his chair. "Women," he grunted. What was it about them that could drive a usually rational and coldly logical man to madness?

Mew glanced over her shoulder at him, her red-rimmed eyes looking more curious than angry now. "What makes you think I'm a woman?"

Mewtwo blinked. Surely he hadn't heard that right. He stared at her. "Wh-what?" he stammered.

"I said, what makes you think I'm a woman?" Mew repeated.

Mew's pupils contracted. His mind shattered. "_NO!_" he screamed in denial. _"YOU CAN'T-"_ His jaw dropped open as Mew tilted her head. "But.but." he protested. "The other day.when you.and I.and we.we did.you know." His hands fumbled about, trying and failing to describe what his gibberish words could not. "You.I mean.you were.and _I_ was.and.and we.how.how the _hell _can you not be female?!"

Mew smiled and turned to face him. "I'm a hermaphrodite."

Mewtwo stared at her. He could feel his world crumbling out from under him. "What?"

"I'm a hermaphrodite. I have to be, otherwise I couldn't be progenitor of all life in the universe," Mew explained. "Not only can I reproduce all by myself, I also have the ability to change sexes at will. At the moment I'm physically female, just like I was the other day when we.you know." She blushed faintly. "But I could easily turn male if I wanted to. It depends on how I'm feeling. Sometimes I spend whole centuries as one gender before switching to the other. The eyelash they cloned you from was probably acquired from one of the periods when I was male, which explains why you're male now. But since you're my clone, that probably also means you can change sexes at will too, if you really wanted to. Isn't that neat?"

Mewtwo stared at her in horror, his face paler than usual. He sank back into his seat, focusing his gaze at some point beyond the television set, unable to banish from his mind the image of himself with breasts. "I'm going to have nightmares about this for the rest of my life. Thank you very much."

"You're welcome." Then she threw popcorn at him, just for good measure, and settled back to keep watching the drama unfold on the TV screen.

When the mist faded, they were standing on the sundeck of the Cerulean gym. May was a bit surprised that the sun was so high in the air, but that was because Cerulean and Petalburg were in different time zones, so while it had been nearly dusk back in Hoenn as they left, it was just around noon in Kanto now.

It took a moment for everyone else on the sundeck to realize they were there. Tracey was shirtless and lying on his chest on one of the deck chairs while a purring Daisy sensually massaged his back. Dawn was curled up in another chair, soaking up sunbeams, while Lily cooled her with a giant fan she had gotten from who-knows-where. Ash was chasing Aipom all over the deck, trying to make the cheeky purple monkey give back his royal headdress, which it was brazenly waving about in the hand growing from the end of its tail.

Violet obediently fed Pikachu, Staravia, Turtwig, Happiny, Piplup, Bunneary, Pachirisu, Buizel, Psyduck, Corsola, Politoed, Marill and Azurill grapes, sweets, and whatever else they desired. The Pokemon were all lazily sitting on cushions, relaxing as Sudowoodo shaded them from the sun and Brock, wearing an apron much too small for his giant frame that said, 'Kiss the cook, (please, I'm begging you!)' prepared more food on a barbecue grill nearby, Croagunk watching him to make sure he didn't accidentally burn anything by staring at Misty's gorgeous and scantily-clad sisters for too long. Misty didn't need divine intuition to notice that Bunneary seemed a little _too_ comfortable sitting next to Pikachu, and smiled a very feline smile of amusement as she observed this.

"Wh-what is all this?!" May gasped in horror.

"Welcome to your new home," Misty said cheerfully. "Or the start of it, anyway."

Ta-Hotep, wide grin on his face, ran out onto the deck upon seeing his father and sister. "Dad, Sis, it's really you!"

Dawn instantly sat up and turned to see her brother. "Ta-Hotep?!" she cried joyfully.

Ash, who was currently jumping up and down in frustration trying to reach Aipom, who had climbed up onto the roof of the structure in the center of the sundeck which housed the stairwell and a small cabana stocked with cool drinks, towels, and spare swimwear, and was dangling his headdress just out of reach, glanced away from the evil monkey to see his son running towards him. A broad grin split his face. "My son! You've returned!" Forgetting about Aipom, he bounded over to Ta-Hotep, grabbed him, and spun about, raising him high into the air while laughing ecstatically. "At last, you're home!" Aipom chittered in disappointment and dropped Ash's headdress on a surprised Pikachu's head, seeing his little game was at an end.

"Yeah, I'm glad to see you too, Dad," Ta-Hotep said, eyes swirling. "Uh, could you put me down now, I'm kind of dizzy."

Instead of putting him down, Ash strode over to the edge of the sundeck and raised Ta-Hotep high into the air for all below to see, Dawn summoning a sunbeam to shine on Ta-Hotep and make him easier to see, with the annoying side effect of nearly blinding him. "MY SON HAS RETURNED! BEHOLD YOUR FUTURE RULER!" he bellowed to the winds.

There was a smattering of applause from one or two of the half-dozen people who had gathered on the lawn below, hoping to ogle Misty's sisters and instead found a bunch of cat-people who were both more interesting and sexier than the girls they had come to see. The few Pokemon that had shown up to see what was going on either looked up curiously or fled in fright due to the volume of Ash's voice. "Whoo!" yelled one young man, raising a burning lighter into the air.

Ash frowned and squinted down at the lawn. "Funny, I thought we'd have more subjects by now. We'll have to work on that."

"Dad, can you put me down now?" Ta-Hotep whined. "I think I'm getting a headache."

"Hmm? Oh, sure son." Ash carefully lowered his son to the ground and beamed at him proudly. "Welcome home!"

"It's so good to see you, little brother," Dawn said happily as she hugged Ta-Hotep.

The others gathered around to get a good look at the new prince. "Oh, he's so adorable!" cooed Violet.

"Yes, isn't he such a cute little master?" Lily agreed.

"Nice.but was it worth interrupting my massage?" Tracey muttered, causing Daisy to huff and scratch his face.

"Great, another mouth to feed." Brock grumbled.

"Pi Pikachu, pika cha Pikachu," Pikachu muttered, still wearing Ash's headdress. _Something seems vaguely familiar about him._

"Bun bunny Bunneary bun," Bunneary said, rubbing up against him. _You look really good in that hat!_

Pikachu sweatdropped and adjusted the thing on his head surreptitiously. "Pipi, Pika kachu." _Thanks.I think._ The other Pokemon snickered, until Pikachu's cheeks started sparking threateningly, and then they shut up.

"Psyduck," said Psyduck, holding his head. _Psyduck._

"Corsola cor cor Corsola cor," complained Corsola. _He never says anything worthwhile._

"As you can see, I have brought back our long-lost son, Ta-Hotep, completing our family," Misty said, walking over, May timidly following her. "But he is not all I brought back with me. This is May, the newest member of our staff, and Max's personal servant. I trust you will all make her feel welcome?" The last was an order, not a question.

"H-hi," May said, weakly waving to the group staring at her.

"Oh, look!" Daisy meowed, touching and sniffing May a little too closely for the girl's comfort. "Mistress has brought back a new slave!"

"Not as pretty as us, though," Violet said haughtily, brushing back some of her hair. "That can be changed, though."

"Do we _want_ to, though?" Lily whispered to Violet. "We three are Mistress's most beautiful servants, we don't want anyone taking that spot!"

"Oh, don't worry, she'll _never_ be as pretty as us," Violet whispered back. "And besides, all our loveliness pales in comparison to Mistress and Mistress's daughter, so it really doesn't matter."

"Of course it does, I don't want to be the second-prettiest slave in the house!" Lily growled.

Violet laughed. "Didn't you know, Lily? You already are!" Lily snarled in fury and pounced, tackling Violet to the ground. The two began rolling about, hissing and snarling and scratching and ripping each other's hair out. Tracey quickly whipped out his pad and started sketching, wondering if either of the girls' minimal clothing would be torn off what with the sharp claws and fangs both felines were bringing to bear. The Pokemon started taking bets on which of the two would win, or at least lose their clothing first.

"Ooh, catfight!" Brock said eagerly. Croagunk croaked loudly, causing Brock to flinch and quickly take a step back. "What?! I was just stating the obvious, not making a lecherous comment! Honest! They're cats, and they really are fighting!"

"What's going on?" asked a confused Ta-Hotep.

Daisy put a hand over the prince's eyes. "Nothing you need concern yourself over, young master. Not until you're old enough for women to be killing each other to marry you, anyway."

"Oh, okay."

Misty sighed and put her face in her hands. "It figures. I transform my sisters into extremely loyal and obedient servants, and they still manage to be as vain as all get out."

"You turned your own sisters into servants?!" cried the horrified May.

"Trust me, they're better off this way," Misty said flatly.

"Uh, should we, you know, stop this or something?" Ash asked Misty.

She stared at him blankly. "No. Why, is there any particular reason we should?"

"Um.no, I guess not," Ash said, looking confused. "Hey, is Pikachu wearing my headdress?" Pikachu sheepishly took off the royal ornament and handed it to Ash. "Hey, thanks." Ash put it back on and glared sternly at Aipom. "And don't you dare try to steal it again, or I'll have your hands chopped off! All three of them!"

"Ash!" snapped a surprised Misty as Aipom chittered and screeched in horror.

"What? It's the standard punishment for thieves!" Ash protested. "And it's _my_ headdress! Nobody else is supposed to wear it!"

May blinked, suddenly putting two and two together. There was only one person she knew who was that protective of his headgear and got it stolen by an Aipom frequently, _and_ had a Pikachu. "Oh my.Ash, is that you?!"

"Yeah, of course it is," Ash said. "Who else would it be? What, you don't recognize me?"

"Um.no, not really," May confessed. "I mean, I heard Bast was Misty, but I never really thought.wait, then who are you?" she asked, referring to Dawn. "I mean, it's obvious the Snorlax is Brock, what with the eyes, apron, and how he was staring at the other women, but I don't know who you're supposed to be."

"I'm Dawn," Dawn told May. "I used to be a coordinator traveling through Ash in the Sinnoh region, but then I found out I'm the reincarnation of the Lightbringer Sekhmet, daughter of Leono and Bast, AKA Ash and Misty. So I pretty much became a god."

"Oh," said May. "Wait, you said you were a coordinator?"

Dawn nodded. "Yeah."

"How many contests have you been in?" May pressed.

Dawn fidgeted. "Well.only a couple.I only have just the one ribbon, unless you count the one Mom gave me."

May flushed with pride. "It just so happens _I'm_ a coordinator too, and I managed to get all the way to the Grand Festivals in Hoenn and Kanto! And.maybe a quarter way through Johto before going home." She didn't want to mention that she had left because she had suffered a crippling defeat and had ran home in tears.

"Really? Wow!" said an impressed Dawn. "Do you think you could give me some pointers, then? From one coordinator to another"

"Sure!" said May, glad to know that she had at least one thing her new divine masters did not.

"Not sure how useful those pointers would be," Brock commented. "Seeing as how she never actually won _any_ of the Grand Festivals, and the fact that she left Johto must have meant she lost pretty badly there too."

"BROCK!" May cried in horror, face falling.

"That was a very cruel thing to say," Misty scolded Brock.

"What? It's true! I mean, you could say the same thing about Ash, he's been in three leagues and won none of those either!" Brock pointed out. "And he's sort of quit Sinnoh early to be a god now."

"coughOrange Islandscough," Ash said, glaring at Brock. "And Battle Frontier too."

"Oh come on, Battle Frontier wasn't even a real league! And we all know the Orange Islands don't count, I wasn't even there for that!" Brock argued.

"Because you were busy with Professor Ivy?" Tracey said innocently.

Brock's face paled. He curled up and sat in a corner, face turned away from everyone, gloom covering him like a shroud. "That.name."

Dawn and May blinked, not sure what had just happened. ".Huh?"

"It's a long story," Misty said. "Anyway, ignore what he just said, May, he's just grumpy because he got turned into a big fat Snorlax instead of a hot god like Ash so he can't attract lots of women."

"Oh," May said, somewhat relieved. "So, he's not a god like you are?"

"No, just hired help," Misty said. "Like you."

"Right."

"Hey, get up and make some more food, I'm hungry!" Ta-Hotep complained, poking the brooding Brock's stomach. The Pokemon, who were also hungry, surrounded Brock and made a loud clamor to show that they wanted food too.

"Go away, can't you see I'm angsting?" Brock moaned.

"If he's hired help, you should probably cut his pay," Dawn commented. "For being rude and unhelpful."

Ash blinked. "We're paying him?"

"I think this has gone on long enough," Misty said, changing the subject. She clapped her hands. "Lily! Violet! Stop that at once!"

The sisters immediately stopped their clawing and scratching and leaped to their feet, hair disheveled, fur missing in clumps, blood oozing from scratches and bite wounds all over their bodies, and one of Violet's breasts hanging out from her sagging and almost-broken chest cloth. Brock's 'girl-senses' detected this and immediately snapped him out of his funk, his nonexistent nose gushing with blood, until Croagunk delivered a Poison Jab to his stomach and caused him to topple over, paralyzed. "Ow." Croagunk croaked in amusement.

"Wow, it's a good thing I wasn't right beneath you when you fell over, or Mama and Dad would tear you limb from limb and disembowel you," Ta-Hotep commented, looking down at Brock from the side. "You just landed on Psyduck, though, so you should be okay."

If Brock had had eyes, they would have widened in horror. "Oh CRAAAAAAAAP!" he yelled as he was surrounded in a blue aura and hurled into the air by the rather squished Psyduck underneath him, flinging him over the side of the sundeck railing and onto the ground below, crushing a pervert who was trying to catch Lily and Violet's post-catfight disarray on video camera in the process. "Ow.again."

"Yes, mistress?" Lily asked.

"What can we do to serve you, mistress?" Violet asked. Both of them were acting as if they had not just been trying to kill each other only seconds ago.

"Have both of you finished all your chores?" Misty asked sternly.

Her former sisters nodded vigorously. "Of course, Mistress! I cleaned the gym from top to bottom!" said Lily.

"And I fed all the Pokemon! Although Gyarados tried to eat me." Violet said.

"Very good. Now that our family is complete, I believe it's time we transformed this gym into a dwelling suitable for the gods," Misty said.

"Cool! Am I gonna get my old room back?" Ta-Hotep asked eagerly.

Misty nodded. "Yes, dear."

"Ooh, and my personal training room?" Ash asked hopefully.

Misty rolled her eyes. "Yes, that too."

"Um, before you transform the gym, do you think you could change me, please?" Tracey asked politely. "I've decided to be one of you cat-person things after all. As long as it doesn't hinder my artistic abilities, I mean."

"All right. Is there any reason in particular you've decided to be one of us?" Misty asked.

"Um, I think I'll be able to do my job better if I'm, ah, in the right frame of mind as the people whom I'm serving," Tracey said, trying not to glance at Daisy.

"Riiiight," Misty said, not fooled. However, she saw no reason to deny his request. "Very well." She walked over to Tracey, put her hands on his shoulders, and breathed into his mouth, much to his surprise.

"Why does she do that?" May asked.  
"Do what?" replied Ash.

"The breath thing. It's kind of creepy," May complained.

"It's a cat thing," Dawn explained. "Dogs smell each other's butts to say hello, we smell each other's breath."

"Oh," May said.

"That's why we cats are culturally superior to dogs!" Ash boasted proudly. "Son, stop trying to grab my tail."

"But it's so neat! And wiggly!" Ta-Hotep protested, trying and failing to grab the star at the end of Ash's tail, which kept moving out of the way before he could catch it.

While they had been talking about Misty's breath, Tracey had finished his transformation, changing into a Meowth-man. He wasn't quite as ripped or muscular as Ash, but he was certainly leaner and more fit than he had been as a human. He had tan fur covering his body, five elegant fingers per hand perfect for artistry with retractable claws, long sandals to match his long brown-tipped feet, a curly tail with a brown tip, and a loincloth. He had six whiskers growing from his face, four from his cheeks and two from the top of his head, framing an oval-shaped gold charm held in place by his usual headband, that also pushed back some of his head fur in his usual hair style. He had big feline eyes, a wide mouth, and no nose, something he discovered only moments later, much to his horror. "Ack! My nose! Where's my nose?!" he cried, his voice sounding slightly higher and more nasal due to his lack of an olfactory organ. "Oh shoot, it must have fallen off or something! Quick, somebody help me find my nose!"

"Is this it?" Ta-Hotep asked, holding up something.

"No, son, that's Azurill," Ash said.

"Azurill!" Azurill squeaked happily.

"Oh. Can I eat it?" Ta-Hotep asked.

"NO/MARILL!" cried a horrified Tracey, Misty, and Marill.

"If you eat it, or Marill, or Pikachu, your mother and I will skin you alive," Ash threatened.

"You wouldn't!" said an alarmed Ta-Hotep.

"Don't be so sure, they can always have another child," Dawn pointed out.

"Eep." Ta-Hotep quickly put Azurill back on the ground. Marill quickly rushed over to grab it, scolding the young prince heavily in the process. He wasn't really paying attention, though.

"Young master, Meowth aren't supposed to have noses," Daisy told the artist calmly. "Yours didn't fall off; it just shrunk into your face. It'll grow back if you ever evolve into a Persian."

"Oh. Right," Tracey laughed sheepishly. Then he cried in pain as Pikachu electrified him. "AAAAGHH! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?!"

Pikachu laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head. "Pi Pika pi Pikachu." _Sorry, force of habit._

"All right, now that that's out of the way, it's time to make this dwelling into a place fit for the gods!" Misty said.

"You already said that," Ash pointed out.

Her eye twitched. "I know. I was just trying to get everything back on track."

"Oh. Okay."

Misty held out her hands. "Let us join hands and bring our palace back into this world."

"Do I need to do any heavy lifting?" Ash asked.

She sighed in exasperation. "No, just hold my hand already!"

Ash blinked. "But.we're in public.with lots of people looking at us."

"DO IT ALREADY!" Misty snarled, causing him to yelp and hold her hand. "You too," she growled at her children, who quickly complied.

"What are they doing?" May whispered to Daisy.

"Combining their powers to change the entire building into a grand palace," the slave girl whispered back.

"Oh." May's eyes widened. "They can do that?!"

Daisy rolled her eyes. "Well, _duh_."

On the ground below, Brock was knocking on the front doors of the gym. (Lily had repaired the door Misty had ripped off its hinges a few hours ago.) "Uh, hello? Anyone in there? I have to get back inside, how else am I gonna make food for all of you?!" That's when the ground began to rumble, and the dome-shaped gym started glowing. Brock's face paled. "Aw crap, that can't be good."

He was right. There was a flash of light from the rooftop sundeck, and an energy beam shot up into the sky from the circle formed by the four gods holding hands, exploding with a brilliant flare and shockwave which blinded Brock and sent him tumbling backwards, rolling over and over and unable to stop himself due to his body's rotund build. Fortunately, his out-of-control rolling was halted when he crashed into a tree, snapping it in half but also stopping his backward momentum. "Ow," he groaned, seeing little chirping Pidgeys flying in circles around his head. He shook his head to clear it, and stared in disbelief at the building standing where the gym had been moments ago. Thinking he was probably seeing things because he was currently upside-down, he rolled over, picked himself up, and looked again. No, he had been right the first time, there really was a fantastic palace made of yellowish granite and sandstone standing where the Cerulean Gym had once been.

Right before him was an immense courtyard with paved stones that could probably fit thousands of people, starting from the foot of the palace and extending past Brock for at least half a mile. Looking around, Brock realized the tree he had broken was just one of many plants growing in the several small enclosed decorative gardens dotting the courtyard. The small garden Brock was currently in sat just behind an enormous stone sphinx staring off into the distance. The edges of the courtyard were lined with wide waterways flowing from a large pool that formed a moat before the front of the palace, with a wide bridge traversing it to the great edifice's broad stone steps. Channels around the steps led inside the palace, allowing the Water Pokemon living in the building to swim in and out whenever they wished. Just past the waterways were the boundaries of the courtyard, formed by a series of obelisks interspaced between statues of seated Persian, Delcatty, Luxray, and Glameow. The palace itself was beautiful to behold, a tremendous and sprawling rectangular structure spreading back and to the sides, the walls covered with magnificent and colorful hieroglyphs and pictograms.

The wide steps, framed on either side by a golden sphinx, led up from the big pool and terminated in a broad terrace with enormous pillars shaped like lotus flowers stretching upward to support the triangular façade hanging over the front, its face covered in gold engravings depicting cats and gods and other things. On closer observation, the façade had a small ledge jutting out from its front with an almost invisible door recessed into the engravings through which the palace's owners could probably step out and address their subjects in the courtyard from on high. Standing on the terrace, positioned so that they could be seen perfectly through the great pillars, were giant statues depicting the four gods in residence, including what Ta-Hotep would probably look like as an adult, the Queen and her consort flanking the main entrance and their children standing on either side of them. The doors themselves were towering and made of solid metal with the image of the sun shining down on a pair of basking cats embossed on it, and Brock wondered how on Earth such big and heavy-looking doors could possibly be opened.

The roof of the palace sloped upwards in a trapezoidal formation, forming a long, flat plateau at the top where an enormous and incredibly beautiful garden, practically a miniature rainforest, was planted, moss and ivy growing outwards and crawling down the sides of the roof. There were probably pools up there, and paved walkways, and all sorts of other things, though Brock couldn't really tell from this angle. He could see the two tall, thin, needle-like obelisks rising from the center of the rooftop garden, their tips covered in gold and gleaming brilliantly in the midday sun.

"Wow," said Brock dully, overawed by the immense palace. "This probably breaks, like, a million city zoning laws." He perked up instantly. "Oh! But that means Officer Jenny will come by to lodge a complaint or evict everyone...and I'll be a giant talking Snorlax, so she won't pay any attention to me." He slumped in disappointment. "Darnit." He started walking towards the palace steps, since there was nowhere else to go. "Why the heck does it have to be so far away?!"

It took him several minutes to reach the moat, and by that time he was panting, sweating all over, and exhausted. He glanced at the cool, refreshing water, imagining just jumping in to cool off. Then he saw Gyarados swimming around just under the surface and decided he'd rather not.

After climbing up the steps, and wondering why there had to be so many of _them_, too (he almost fell back down a few times, but fortunately had been able to maintain his balance), Brock reached the terrace, dragged himself over to the doors, and leaned against them for a moment to catch his breath, wondering how he was going to get inside.

That was when the one he was leaning on flew open with a swift movement, knocking Brock over and sending him rolling off the terrace, down the stairs, and into the moat, his heavy splash attracting Gyarados and causing the atrocious sea serpent to come over and see what was going on. Brock screamed and quickly swam for shore as fast as he could, but since he was a huge lumbering Snorlax, that wasn't very fast.

Back on the terrace, the royal family and their servants came out through the door Ash had just opened, looking around in amazement at what the power of the gods had brought forth. "Wow," said an impressed Ash. "You really outdid yourself, Mist."

"Pika Pika!" agreed Pikachu.

Misty nodded, pleased with herself. "It's greater than I ever expected."

"This is incredible!" gushed Dawn.

"It's even better than our last palace!" Ta-Hotep agreed.

"It's a masterpiece of architecture and artwork!" Tracey added, frantically sketching it out in his notepad.

The servants were not quite as thrilled. "I hope we're getting more staff soon," complained Lily. "I don't want to have to clean up all this, plus everything inside, by myself!"

"Don't worry, I'm sure we can just hire.or _force_.the nice people of Cerulean to take care of this mammoth place when they come by to see what's up. They're gonna be the subjects of Mistress anyway, might as well do something productive with their service," Violet said.

"Then we'll have more people to boss around! Won't that be fun?" Daisy said, cackling evilly.

May was much more subdued. _They were able to turn an entire gym into... into this!_ Her mind reeled at the concept. _How...how am I supposed to do this?! They're _gods_, immortal, beautiful, and practically omnipotent! I'm just a mortal. A slave. A nobody. How can I _possibly_ take care of and watch over Max when he's become so, so _beyond_ me?! He doesn't even know who I am anymore.just 'some girl' who decided to become his servant._Her heart sank deeper and deeper in despair and self-loathing. _Even the other servants are prettier than I am. Why did I insist on coming? I would have been better off staying at home.but now it's too late. Even if I went home, I'd be stuck like this. There's nothing I can do. I'm going to have to stay here and serve the gods and die in a blink of an eye, compared to their eternal lifespans. They'll probably even forget I was ever here._ She bit her lip in misery.

"Oh, hey Brock," Ash said, noticing a wet and bedraggled Snorlax pulling himself out of the moat and lying, heaving, on the bridge. "What're you doing down there?"

Brock gasped for breath. "You've really.wheeze.gotta put in escalators.and people movers.and elevators.and maybe some.gasp.Segways, this place is too big for a guy to walk from one end to the other."

"We'll look into it," Misty said as Ash helped Brock to his feet.

"Can you look into making me smaller, too? It's hard to walk long distances like this." Brock complained, shaking himself in an attempt to dry off.

"Too bad you can't fly," Mew commented from beside him. "Or teleport. Either one is much faster."

Brock nodded. "Yeah." There was a pause. Then he realized the legendary Mew was right beside him. She waved. He yelped, stumbled backwards, and fell into the moat again, creating a big splash that Mew easily deflected with a wall of psychic force.

"Sorry!" Mew called to Brock as he frantically swam to shore again in an attempt to escape the curious Gyarados. "My bad."

"Hey, it's Aunt Mew!" Ta-Hotep said happily.

"Oh, wow, I haven't seen her in ages!" Dawn said, both of them running down the steps to see the pink flying kitten.

"..._Aunt_ Mew?!" May asked incredulously, feeling even more out of her depth.

"Well, they _are_ gods," Tracey reasoned. "It'd make sense for them to be chummy to some extent with other deities. And it makes sense they'd know Mew, since she's been around forever and has been depicted in sculptures and writings from just about every civilization on the planet going back thousands of years, including Pokegypt, meaning she's probably been to all those places at one point or another. This is so cool!"

"Like, he's such a nerd," Violet complained to Daisy. "What do you see in him, anyway?"

Daisy hissed, extending her claws threateningly. "Shut up!"

"It's great to see you again, Mew," Ash said, shaking one of Mew's hands, which were so tiny they practically vanished in Ash's big claws.

Mew nodded. "Same here! Oh, Lucario says hi, by the way."

Ash blinked, and looked at Pikachu, who gave him an equally perplexed look. "Isn't Lucario dead?"

"Like that means anything. Hey! Kids! Looking good!" Mew said, leaving Ash and swooping over to see Dawn and Ta-Hotep as they came over. Misty followed behind them, at a less breakneck pace, in no great hurry. "Why, if I didn't know better, I'd have sworn you hadn't just been reincarnated from human form a couple hours ago!"

Dawn blushed, and Ta-Hotep looked at her in confusion. "You were?"

Dawn's eyes widened. "Ahhhh.."

"It's a long story," Misty said, putting a hand on her son's shoulder. "We'll explain later." She took both of Mew's hands in her own and rubbed her nose against the pink kitten's face. "My dear friend.it has been far, far too long."

"Definitely, almost five thousand years," Mew said, nuzzling her back. "Unless you count that one time a few years ago when Mewtwo killed Ash and tried to destroy the planet."

Ash blinked. "Huh? When'd that happen?"

"Oh, of course you wouldn't remember, your memory was erased," Mew said casually.

"Oh." Ash looked at Pikachu in confusion. The electric mouse shrugged to show he had no idea what Mew was talking about either.

"So, anyway, did you incarnate all right? All your memories intact? Emotions in order? Powers working fine?" Mew asked Misty, looking concerned. "Coming back from death the first time is always disorienting, but it gets easier on subsequent times."

"You've died before?" asked a surprised Dawn.

"Only occasionally, when I feel like it or get bored," Mew said. "But I always bounce back. It's who I am."

"Ah," said Dawn, not understanding at all, unsurprisingly.

"They seem pretty close," Brock, dripping wet (again) commented to Ash.

Ash nodded in agreement. "Yeah, they've been best friends for centuries. Misty's known Mew since she was just a little god-kitten."

"Huh." Brock said nothing for a moment. "So...that means they've been friends even since before you and Misty got together, right?"

Ash nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"Well, uh." Brock fidgeted. "Do you think they.you know.were, ah... _more_ than just friends?"

Ash stared at him blankly. "Huh?"

"Well, you know, teenagers sometimes _experiment_ a little while they're growing up, to see what they're good at or _who_ they're good at." Brock said, trailing off when he saw the way Ash was looking at him. "I was just wondering if it might be the same for some gods."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Ash said flatly.

"Pikachu pi pika chapi Pikachu cha," Pikachu said. _He's asking if Mew and Misty ever slept together._

"Oh," said Ash. There was a pause. Then his eyes flashed, and he angrily pushed Brock off the side of the bridge, causing him to fall into the water with a wail and a big splash which Ash shielded himself from with his cape. "None of your business!" he yelled as the Snorlax frantically started swimming, from the third time, away from Gyarados.

"So, didja bring us anything, Aunt Mew? Huh? Didja?" Ta-Hotep asked eagerly.

"Yeah, you always give us the coolest stuff!" Dawn agreed. "Like that ten-dimensional interchronal viewer you gave me for my three hundred and fiftieth birthday!"

"Or that pretty bouncing sparkling ball which entertained me for hours and hours!" Ta-Hotep said. "Playing with that never got old!"

Mew laughed, breaking away from Misty and flying around the kids' heads. "Well, I did bring _something_ as a housewarming present." she said teasingly.

"Oh boy! Is it a BIG sparkling ball?" Max asked hopefully.

"Or handsome dancers?" Dawn asked with equal hope.

"Or a Mamoswine?" Ash asked eagerly. They stared at him. "What? I'm hungry, and I always wanted to eat one! We never got any in Pokegypt."

"No..." Mew said slowly. "But I think it _will_ be something you'll all love! It's-"

Just then, a grabber claw on an extendable arm shot out of nowhere and tried to snatch Pikachu. Ash reflexively caught it by the wrist before the hand could close on his startled Pika-pal and ripped it off. He blinked, looking from the severed hand to the sparking arm in confusion as it retracted. "Huh? Where'd that come from?"

"Oh, from the same place as this one," Mew said calmly as another arm tried to snatch her, only to be disintegrated when she glanced at it.

"Muhahahahaha!" a familiar voice cackled stupidly, causing everyone to groan. A giant robot shaped like an Entei with a big red R on its chest, two broken extendable robot arms growing from its shoulders, vaulted over the obelisks ringing the courtyard and landed on the paved stones just before the moat, cracking the tiles. Misty's ex-sisters sighed in exasperation; certain they were going to have to fix that damage themselves.

"Didn't we already go through this once today?" complained Dawn.

"And didn't I send them blasting off? How'd they find us, anyway?" said Misty with a frown.

"Well, I imagine the big flash of light caused by you turning the gym into a giant freaking palace might have tipped them off," Brock suggested, pulling himself out of the moat again. He cringed when she glared at him. "Please don't push me back in the water for saying that, I've had enough already!"

May groaned. "I thought I was _through _with these guys when I left Ash.well, guess it was inevitable that they'd show up eventually, now that I'm with him again."

They could hear more annoying laughter as three all-too-familiar figures rose through a hatch on the top of the robot Entei's head. "Listen, is that a catty voice I hear?" asked Jessie.

"It's purring to me, loud and clear," said James, holding a rose for some reason.

"Wow, she's ugly," said a disgusted Violet.

"Yeah, yell me about it," agreed Lily. "The new girl looks better than her!"

"Thanks.I think." May said, somewhat confused.

Jessie's face turned red. "HEY, WHO ARE YOU CALLING UGLY, HAIRY LEGS?!"

"I'm supposed to have hairy legs, I'm a cat!" Violet yelled back.

"And we look _way_ better with them than you do," added Lily, posing.

"Well, at least I don't wear such slutty outfits!" Jessie retorted angrily.

"Only because nobody'd want to see what you've got under them!" Daisy called back.

"Ooh, burn," Lily approved.

Jessie fumed angrily. "WHY YOU-"

"Ah, Jessie, the motto?" James interrupted.

Jessie blinked. "Hmm? Oh right! Ahem: Floating on the winds!"

"Past the stars!"

"Can't we skip this part? You already deliver this once today!" Brock complained.

"No, now shut up!" Jessie snarled.

"How did he know that? I don't recall seeing a Snorlax earlier this morning." wondered James. "Come to think of it, what's Pikachu doing here, anyway?"

"Who cares? Pikachu's here with Mew and those others, so we can catch 'em and give 'em to the boss!" Meowth said. Pikachu sighed in exasperation and rolled his eyes when he heard this. "Now, where were we? Oh, right, in your ear!"

"Why is he up there with them, anyway?" Dawn wondered. "Shouldn't he be worshipping us or something?"

"He's too stupid to recognize his rightful masters when he sees them," Mew said. "A shame."

"Hey, I ain't stupid!" Meowth yelled.

"That's debatable." Misty muttered under her breath.

"And the only master I worship is the Boss, so there!" Meowth finished triumphantly.

"Ah, Mewoth? You're ruining the motto," James said.

Meowth blinked. "Huh? Oh, sorry. Please continue."

They did. "Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace!"

"Dashing hope, putting fear in its place!"

"A rose by any other name's just as sweet!"

"When everything's worse, our work is complete!"

"Jessie!"

"And it's James!"

"Meowth! Now that's a name!"

"Putting the do-gooders in their place!"

"Team Rocket!"

"We're in your face!"

"Wobbuffet!" said Wobbuffet, popping out of its Pokeball.

"Mime mime!" said James' Mime Jr., imitating Wobbuffet.

Ta-Hotep blinked. "Mama, are they clowns?"

"Yes dear, exceptionally stupid ones," Misty said, causing Team Rocket to facefault.

Daisy yawned. "I give it a 4 out of 10. We can do better routines in our sleep."

"Without even getting cleaned up or anything in the morning!" added Lily.

"Though I wouldn't want to do a routine, looking like that," admitted Violet. "By which I mean, either looking like we hadn't gotten ready in the morning, or looking like those three idiots over there."

"HEY!" yelled Team Rocket.

May sighed and shook her head. "Their motto's changed, and they're still as pathetic as ever."

"What's she talking about? When has she heard our motto before?" wondered James. "Is it just me, or do she.and some of the other weird cat-things.look vaguely familiar?"

"It's just you," Jessie said dismissively. "Anyway, we're going to capture you all by using a cat's greatest weakness, which we learned from Meowth!"

"Getting drenched in water after getting your fur just right from spending an hour licking it all into place?" Dawn suggested.

"Poisoned food?" offered Ash.

"Losing all nine lives?" said Brock.

"A ball of string or really sparkly thing to catch the eye?" asked Ta-Hotep.

There was a pause. "Actually, we were thinking more along the line of dogs." James said finally.

"Yeah, they scare the crud outta me!" said Meowth.

"That's because you're small and...well...really weak," Ash said. He flexed his muscles. "Look at me; do you think I have any reason to be afraid of dogs?"

"And I played with dogs all the time back in Pokegypt," said Ta-Hotep. "If anything, _they_ were afraid of _me._"

"And if dogs ever bother me, I usually just turn myself into something bigger and badder. Or teleport away. Or defeat them using my totally awesome skillz," Mew commented.

Team Rocket slumped. "Well, building this thing was a big waste of time, then," complained Jessie.

"Yes, and we even went all the way to my childhood home and risked being married to Jessiebelle to get my old friend Growly and bring him up here!" James said unhappily, pressing a button on a remote control and causing the robot Entei's chest to open up, a robot arm extending outwards with a large Arcanine held in its claw. The big mutt barked happily and panted, tongue hanging out and tail wagging. "Aren't you at least the tiniest bit scared?" The gods and former humans glanced at each other, then shook their heads. James' face fell. Mime Jr. mimicked him, looking like a very sad clown indeed.

"Nice going, Meowth," Jessie growled.

"Hey, I thought it would work! _I'm_ a cat, and I'm plenty scared of that big mutt!" Growly barked again, and Meowth yowled and leaped into the air, landing on James' face.

"Please get off, I can't breathe," James said in a muffled voice from beneath Meowth's fur.

"Well, we still have a giant robot, and we'll crush you with it, whether you're afraid of dogs or not!" Jessie promised, the elevator platform Team Rocket was standing on lowering back into the robot Entei. "Prepare for ultimate defeat!"

The gods gave each other bored looks. "Okay, who wants to take them out?" Ash asked.

"Pikapi kachu chupi, pi pika Pikachu chu," Pikachu said. _I'm not doing it, I have to do it all the time. One of you do it!_

"Ooh, can I kill them Mama?" Ta-Hotep begged eagerly. "Can I, please?"

"No, you're too young to kill them," Misty said. "Besides, they seem to be half-immortal themselves, I'm not sure we _can_ kill them. Though we can certainly try."

"There's only one way to decide this," Ash said firmly. He extended his fist. Misty, Dawn, and Mew all extended theirs as well. And then.

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"

Ash got rock, Misty got paper, and Dawn and Mew both got scissors. "Yes, I won!" Dawn cheered happily.

"Me too!" Mew said.

"Wait, don't I win?" Ash protested. "I got rock, which beats scissors!"

"Yeah, until my paper covers it," Misty pointed out.

"But then our scissors cut it!" Dawn said.

"How do you know my rock didn't break them first?" Ash said.

"Because then I'd be the winner," Misty said.

Ash paused. "Oh. Um.then maybe I waited until they cut up your paper and THEN smashed their scissors! Ha! I win!"

Mew blinked. "I'm not sure it works that way."

"I'm confused," Ta-Hotep whined.

"Oh, just let Dawn do it," Misty said finally. "She hasn't gotten to do much lately."

"Thanks, Mom.I think." Dawn said, frowning at her.

"Awww, and I wanted to help," Mew complained.

"You brought us a housewarming gift, that's good enough," Misty said. "Though we don't really know what that is just yet."

"You will soon enough! You're gonna love it!" Mew told her eagerly.

"Hey, why aren't they paying attention to us? We're standing right here with a giant robot ready to crush them!" Jessie said angrily.

"Maybe they don't think we're impoitant enough to bother with. The snobs!" Meowth sneered.

"Oh, look, the one with the staff's coming over here," James said, observing how Dawn was walking towards the Entei robot.

"Good, they must have chosen her to be the sacrificial Mareep, or should I say Skitty," Jessie cackled evilly. "Prepare to-"

Dawn raised her staff and an incredibly powerful beam of solar energy blasted down from the sun, smashing down on the robot from above and vaporizing it in a flash of heat and light. When the light faded, all that was left of the mecha was an extremely charred and blackened spot on the ground, bits of burnt scrap lying here and there. Team Rocket, fried crispy and yet somehow still alive, stood in the middle of this charred area, dazed and extremely burnt, most of their hair gone. It was amazing their uniforms were still somewhat intact, though almost burnt beyond recognition. Growly lay nearby, most of his fur burnt off but still wagging and panting happily. He barked. Dawn smiled. "Well, that was easy."

May had gone pale. "That.that was.horrible!" She found herself imagining being blasted by a similar burst of solar energy if she somehow failed her new masters, and shuddered in terror.

Violet groaned. "Great, we're gonna have to clean up _that_ too."

"Maybe not," Daisy said, an evil look in her eyes. "Do you think the Mistress will hire them?"

"Ooh, that's a great idea!" Lily said ecstatically. "Of course, I can't imagine they'll _want_ to be.but then again, I suppose it's better than Mistress or Master killing them!" The three sisters cackled like evil witches, creeping May and Tracey out.

"Are we still alive?" James asked faintly.

"We have to be," Meowth said deadpan. "I don't think I'd hurt this much if I were dead."

"My.hair." Jessie sobbed. "My.beautiful.hair.all._gone!"_ Naturally, most of her hair had gotten burnt off due to the solar blast, so now she was somewhat bald. James and Meowth privately thought it was an improvement, but didn't say so.

The gods (and Brock) walked over to Team Rocket. "So, what should we do with them?" Dawn asked.

"Pika!" _Kill them!_ Roared Pikachu.

"Chop off their hands?" Ash suggested. Misty glared at him. "What?! It's the punishment for thieves, and they're thieves if nothing else! They've tried to nab Pikachu and lots of other Pokemon hundreds of times!"

"You could lock them in the dungeon of eternal torture and punish them there forever," Mew said cheerfully.

They stared at her. "I'm not even sure we have a dungeon of eternal torture," Misty said after a moment.

"Let's eat them!" Ta-Hotep said eagerly, causing Team Rocket's eyes to widen in fright. They would have run, but they were sort of stiffened and suffering from tenth-degree burns, so moving wasn't really an option.

Brock shook his head. "I'm not cooking that. Any meat coming from those three would be spoiled rotten and taste horrible."

"Hey, I do not taste horrible!" Jessie yelled angrily.

"Ah, Jessie, don't give them any encouragement." James said anxiously.

Misty crossed her arms. "I am tempted to kill them, yes.but I am not a cruel goddess. I shall put their fate in their own hands." She crouched down so Meowth could get a good look at her. "Meowth, when last we met, you had no idea who I was. Do you have a better idea now?" She spread her arms. "Does my family seem at all familiar to you?"

Meowth stared at her for a moment blankly. Then he glanced at Ash, Dawn, Ta-Hotep, Brock, Mew, the others back on the steps, and Misty again. His eyes widened in astonishment. "You're the twerps!" Misty sweatdropped as her family facefaulted behind her.

"Well, at least he's half right, that's something," Mew said reassuringly to Misty, patting her on the shoulder. "I was expecting him to get it completely wrong."

"Wait, the twerps?!" Jessie cried incredulously. "But-but how did they become such big.hairy.cat things?!"

"And such handsome ones at that," James observed, glancing at Ash and making him rather uncomfortable.

Misty sighed in exasperation, giving up being patient. "That would be because I'm the reincarnation of _Bast_, you idiot! Does that ring a bell?!"

From the way Meowth's eyes widened in horror and his face paled under all the soot covering it, she knew it did. "Oh, _fudge_," the not-very-bright cat cursed. "Bast?! As in, Queen Bast, immortal goddess and ruler of all cat Pokemon?! I thought you were just a myth! Or dead!"

"I got better," Misty growled.

"And-and that means." Meowth glanced at the others. "The big boy there's your husband, Leono, the hot babe's Sekhmet, and the kid's.uh.what's his name again?"

"Ta-Hotep," Ta-Hotep offered helpfully.

"Yeah, that," Meowth said. He laughed nervously and, ignoring how much his bones creaked and his muscles complained, he manage to force his burnt body to prostrate before Misty. "H-hail Bast! Uh, h-hey, um, _really_ sorry about not r-recognizing you or your pals earlier. And for talking about giving you to the Boss and making you mate with his Persian. Y-you wouldn't kill me for all that, would you? I mean, you're such a _kind.loving.FORGIVING AND MERCIFUL._deity, right? Plus, you wouldn't hurt a cute little fella like me, would you?" He smiled weakly, showing a mouth full of cracked and broken teeth. His smile became more strained when he saw Misty wasn't buying it. He got desperate. "PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!" he screamed. "You can kill the other two though, it was all their idea, I just went along for-er, I mean, they made me do it! Yeah! I would _never_ do stuff like this if they didn't force me to!"

"What?!" Jessie screamed, enraged.

"Meowth, how could you?!" James said angrily.

"Hey, in this world you always gotta look out for number one, and that's what Meowth is doing!" Meowth snapped back. "This is a _god_ we're talking to here, they can only be appeased by a human sacrifice, and last time I checked the both of you were human!"

"Wrong pantheon," Dawn said.

Meowth blinked. "Huh?"

"We're Pokegyptian. While we accept sacrifices of food and occasionally dead Pokemon, we don't eat humans. You're thinking of the gods in Mesoamerica," Dawn explained.

"Oh," Meowth said.

"I'm rather insulted that you think we'd eat humans, though!" Ash said angrily.

"Yeah, especially ones as yucky as you," Ta-Hotep said, deciding he didn't want to eat Team Rocket after all. This relieved Brock, for he didn't really want to cook them.

"Eh heh, that's not an insult worth KILLING over, is it?" Meowth said anxiously, feeling his life slipping away before his eyes. "Uh, maybe I should just stop talking altogether."

"A wise decision," Misty agreed. "And I will allow you to make another decision: your choice of punishment for having tried to capture us, insulting us, trying to catch Pikachu a million times, and for generally harassing us on an almost daily basis for the last few years." She smiled, enjoying the looks of sheer terror on their faces. "Now, here are your options. One: we could kill you." The idiot trio swallowed hard when they heard that. "Two: we could let you go." They relaxed. "After chopping off your hands." They looked terrified again, especially when Ash grinned at them evilly. "Three: We lock you in the dungeon of eternal torture for.I don't know.a few years?"

"I thought you didn't have a dungeon of eternal torture," Mew commented.

Misty glared at her friend. "Shut up, Mew, we can always build one. And option four: I make you into my slaves, and you will serve me until the day you die, or I get bored of you and throw you away. What will it be?"

Team Rocket glanced at each other uneasily. "None of those choices sound very good," James said finally.

"How about option five: we leave and you never hear from us again?" Jessie asked hopefully.

Misty grinned, showing her pointed teeth. "That was never an option. Unless by 'leave', you mean we get to chop off your hands first."

The fools paled in fright. Meowth laughed nervously and said, "Well then, ah, I guess it'll have to be number four: serving you forever."

"What?! Meowth, what are you-" Jessie started.

He grabbed her by the shoulder and whispered into her air, ignoring how much both of their bodies screamed in pain at this motion. "It's better than dying or being tortured for a few years. When the time is right, we'll steal whatever treasure they have, capture Pikachu and maybe the kid, then run off and give 'em to the boss! Simple!"

"I can hear you, you know," Misty said flatly, causing Meowth and Jessie to yelp and jump back, nearly tumbling over each other and falling into the moat. Much to Brock's disappointment, they stayed on their feet. "However, since you have made your choice, I will stand by it and give you what you asked for."

"Uh, Misty, is this a good idea?" Ash whispered to his wife. "Pikachu still thinks we should kill them."

"Pika." _Definitely_.

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing." Misty turned back to Team Rocket. "You have agreed to serve me until the day you die or I discard you, and I am holding you to that oath. It is binding, and if you break it, the consequences will be most severe, for it is never a wise idea to go back on a deal you've made with a god. Now, since you will be living among us, I will change you into forms more suitable to your new environment." She snapped her fingers, and all three of the thieves fell to the ground screaming in agony, writhing in pain as bones snapped and rejoined differently, muscles tore apart and wove back together differently, their skin stretched and shrank, their spines twisted out of alignment and into different shapes, and pretty much every part of them was subjected to a gruesome and horrifically painful transformation.

"W-what's happening to them?!" cried a horrified May.

"Oh, Mistress is changing them into her servants, just like she did to you and Tracey," Daisy explained.

"But-but she breathed in our mouths to do that, and it was painless and quick!" protested Daisy.

"That's _because_ she breathed in your mouth. Mistress has the power to turn any human into a feline servant, but if she doesn't fill their lungs with divine wind the process is one of slow and excruciating agony. Since she is not overly cruel, she would only deny that wind to those whom she especially despises. She must _really_ hate these three to make them suffer like this!" commented Lily.

"Oh," May said faintly. As the pained screams increased in volume, she turned greenish and threw up.

Violet glared at her. "You're gonna have to clean that up, you know."

"Fascinating," Tracey said idly, all his attention focused on sketching the fantastic transformation below.

Misty stood up and nodded, pleased with her work. Team Rocket lay in the soot, gasping for breath, covered in sweat and fur, their unbelievably painful transformation finally completed. "I think these forms suit them, don't you?" Misty commented to her family, who nodded in agreement.

James had become much shorter and much fatter, looking a lot like a smaller version of Brock but with longer ears sticking out of matted blue hair and wide-open eyes rather than slits. His skin was covered in dark blue-green fur that was pretty dirty, unsurprising since he was sweaty all over and had previously been nuked and heavily burnt by an intense beam of solar radiation. He was still wearing his Team Rocket uniform, but it was too big for him and rather tattered, leaving him clothed in filthy rags full of holes, a big one where the red 'R' for Rocket used to be. He was barefoot, as opposed to most of the other felines. "I'm.a Munchlax?" he whimpered when he was finally able to move without it hurting too much.

"Wow Brock, it's a Mini-you!" Ash joked.

Brock sweatdropped. "Great.what, am I supposed to adopt him or something?"

Jessie had become shorter and fatter as well, and was _incredibly_ hideous. Her filthy fur was supposed to be blue and white, but because of all the dirt and grime it looked more like dark gray and lighter gray. She seemed top-heavy, her torso abnormally large with ugly sagging breasts that the soiled rags which used to be her Team Rocket uniform did little to hide. Her hips were abnormally large as well, her waist surprisingly skinny and looking almost crushed between the two halves of her body. Fat sagged off her arms and legs, causing them to jiggle a bit with every breath she took. Her hands and feet were surprisingly tiny and delicate in comparison to the rest of her body, though it was debatable whether she could do much with such shriveled hands. A long tail drooped out from her rear, loosely coiled like a broken spring or slinky and dragging on the ground behind her. Her face matched the rest of her body, rather grotesque with a mouth frozen in a perpetual sneer, showing yellowed and twisted teeth, bloodshot yellow eyes (one of which was larger than the other), a bulbous nose, and four crooked whiskers twisting out from her cheeks. Her ears were large and swooped upwards from the sides and top of her head, ending in feathery purple tips. For some reason, her red hair had grown back but didn't quite seem to match the proportions of her new form, so fell down her back in a tangled and dirty mass and dragged along the ground behind her. She was clearly some kind of deformed humanoid Purugly. Everyone looked at her in disgust and vague pity. "What? What'th wrong?" Jessie asked, lisping due to the way her new mouth was shaped. "Why'th everyone looking at me like that? Ith there thomething on my fathe?" She glanced in the water, screamed bloody murder upon seeing her own reflection, and passed out.

"Ew. I am _not_ drawing that," Tracey said, shaking his head and crumpling up the piece of paper upon which he had started to draw the transformed Jessie. "I have my standards." May threw up again, and nobody blamed her.

"Ugh, I'm not working with _that_ thing unless it wears a paper bag over its head," said a disgusted Lily.

"Or an iron mask," agreed Daisy.

"Mama, it's scaring me!" Ta-Hotep wailed, burying his face in his mother's skirt.

"Don't look dear, some things are too horrible for a child of your age to see just yet," Misty agreed, rubbing her son's hair sadly.

"Uh, Mom, why'd you make her so ugly?!" asked Dawn incredulously.

"I didn't mean to, honest," Misty protested. "I mean, I wanted her to be somewhat less than 'plain', but.well, sometimes the magic takes on a life of its own. I guess it wanted her appearance to reflect the true ugliness of her soul, or something."

"That's one butt-ugly soul," Brock said bluntly.

"Pikachu pika pika chupi kaka Pikachu," said Pikachu. _Would have been better off killing her than turning her into _that.

Meowth sat up and looked himself over anxiously. "Huh? Hey, why do I look exactly the same?"

"You don't," said James. "Your charm is gone."

"Whaaaat?!" Meowth screamed in horror. He titled his eyes upward and frantically ran his paws over his forehead, trying to find where his charm had gone. "Where is it?! Where's my lucky charm?!"

"I got rid of it," Misty said. "You don't deserve to have it. If you work hard and prove yourself trustworthy, you might give it back."

"If all you were going to do was take his charm away instead of transforming him, why'd you put him through such horrible pain?" asked a confused Ash.

"Because I wanted him to suffer," Misty said plainly.

"Oh, okay."

"Kachu!" _Nice!_

"Now that I have changed you, I shall assign you duties," Misty said. "James, can you cook?"

"No," James said. "If I could, do you really think we'd be starving all the time?"

"Hmm, good point. Well, I'm still going to put you in the kitchen with Brock since I can't think of anywhere better."

"Oh boy, food!" James said eagerly.

Brock grunted. "Great, looks like I am adopting him after all. Wonderful."

"I'm sure you'll make a great father figure, Brock," Dawn said reassuringly. "You've done so well raising Sudowoodo, after all!"

"I'd rather be a father to an _actual_ son, not a Pokemon I picked up," the Snorlax complained.

"Oh, come now, it's not like you'll ever reproduce anyway," Mew said cheerfully. "Might as well adopt."

Brock glared at her. "Gee, thanks."

"I don't need a father, I already have one.and I'm a grown man!" James protested. Nobody paid attention to him.

"Meowth, I'm putting you under the supervision of Daisy, Lily, and Violet, since you really can't be trusted," Misty continued.

"Yay?" Meowth said uncertainly.

"And Jessie.we'll think of something suitable for her later. Probably cleaning in dark, dirty areas where nobody really goes very often," Misty said after a moment.

"I don't think she'll like that," commented James.

"That's the idea. Now, let's see, am I forgetting anything? Ah, right." Misty snapped her fingers again, and suddenly iron manacles and collars materialized on Team Rocket's wrists and necks. "These will force you to obey those superior to you, namely, just about everyone else. And." She concentrated, and glowing marks in the shape of cat's eyes branded themselves onto the trio's foreheads, causing Meowth and James to yelp in pain as their flesh was burnt. "These Marks of Shame will designate you as untrustworthy servants under constant surveillance. If you ever perform a disloyal and disobedient act like stealing jewelry and silverware or failing to do the chores allotted to you, those Marks will electrify you. They will do the same if you contemplate murdering or capturing any of us, or trying to escape."

"But that's not fair!" protested Meowth.

"Of course it's not, that's the point. If you can prove yourselves worthy of our trust, the marks will be removed. It'll probably only take a few decades, though." Meowth and James looked at each other unhappily.

"Welcome to the first day of the rest of your lives! Isn't it great?" Mew asked cheerfully.

"Yay," Meowth and James said deadpan.

"Pikachuuuuuuuu!" Pikachu cried, electrifying Meowth, James, and Jessie, causing them to scream and writhe and wake the Purugly up. Ta-Hotep laughed, because their pain was funny.

"Why did you do that?" Ash asked Pikachu.

The mouse shrugged. "Pi Pikachu." _Force of habit_

Meowth growled. "Someday I'm gonna eat that rodentyeaaaAAARRRRGGHHHH!" he screamed as the mark on his forehead lit up, electrifying him and filling his body with horrible pain. "Or maybe not," he said weakly, coughing up smoke.

"What's going on?" Jessie asked, very dazed. "I dreamed I became hideously ugly.."

"You did," said Dawn, averting her eyes. "It wasn't a dream."

"Don't worry," Mew said, pulling a big mean-looking iron mask out of nowhere and slamming it down over Jessie's head, locking it into place and feeding the key to James. "You'll never have to see your face again, and neither will anyone else!"

"Yay?" Jessie said faintly, still dazed and confused.

Misty clapped her hands, calling her other servants over. "Daisy, Lily, Violet, please escort our new staff to their quarters."

"Yes, Mistress," Lily said, picking up Meowth and cuddling him in her arms, much to his distaste. "Aren't you a cutie! We are going to have so much fun!"

"You're the kind of girl who likes putting ribbons and frilly things on poor helpless Pokemon like myself, aren't you?" Meowth asked unhappily.

"Uh-huh!" Lily purred, rubbing her cheek against his.

Meowth groaned. "I hate my life."

"I'll take you where you're supposed to go, but don't touch me," Violet said to the masked Jessie. "I don't wanna get your ugly all over me."

"I'm not ugly!" protested Jessie, stumbling after Violet as she headed back across the bridge.

Violet sighed and shook her head sympathetically. "Poor thing, you're in denial. We'll fix that soon enough."

"I don't suppose you could pick me up?" James asked Daisy hopefully.

She raised an eyebrow. "Uh, right. You've got to be weighing, what, three hundred pounds? More?"

"Er.I suppose I have been putting on a little weight." James said sheepishly, glancing down at his rather large stomach.

"Yeah. A little. Right. So.I'm afraid you're gonna have to walk on your own little two feet. That's what they're there for," Daisy said pointedly.

James anxiously looked at how far he would have to walk just to reach the front door. "But it's so far to walk on these stubby little legs!"

"Tell me about it," said Brock.

"Don't worry," Daisy said cheerfully. "You'll walk off all that excess weight in no time!"

James sweatdropped. "Wonderful." he grumbled, walking after her as she left. "Wait, what about Growly?" Gyarados surged out of the water, grabbed the burnt canine in its jaws, and dragged it back into the depths. James sagged. "Oh. Never mind."

"Well, that was fun," Dawn said. "Now what?"

"Now we get the present!" Ta-Hotep said eagerly.

"Oh, right! Almost forgot," Mew said. "My housewarming gift!" She flew up into the air and gestured, causing the sun to abruptly set in the west, the moon rising from the east as the sky turned dark and stars appeared in the sky.

"Nice illusion," Tracey complimented, very impressed.

Mew blinked. "Illusion?"

"That wasn't an illusion, Tracey, she actually sped up the planet's rotation so we wouldn't have to wait several hours for our side of the world to be facing away from the sun," Misty told the artist.

Tracey's eyes bulged. May gaped in astonishment. "She can _do that?!_"

"Duh," said Mew. "I can do anything."

Pikachu shook his head in amazement. "Pikachu." _Wow._

"That's pretty cool," Ash said. "So, what are you trying to show us?"

Mew floated to the side and indicated a small grouping of stars, causing them to light up somewhat brighter than the others in the night sky. "Okay, see these stars here? The ones that, if you draw imaginary lines between them, forms a constellation that looks sort of like a cat curled up and gazing down at you from above?" She demonstrated by drawing in the air, causing white lines to appear in the sky connecting the glowing stars and creating a shape which, if you filled in the space around it with your imagination, could easily be thought of as looking like a cat looking down at them.

"Yeah," said Dawn.

"What about them?" asked Brock.

"Um, those lines are an illusion, and not you actually connecting stars by some sort of giant plasma flow, right?" Tracey asked nervously.

"Yes. Anyway, those stars weren't up there last night," Mew said. "I put 'em up in the sky a few hours ago as a 'welcome back' present to my bestest buddy Bast! Well, actually, a few hours ago I got Celebi to take me back in time several thousand years so that I could ignite those stars back then, since I estimated it would take about that long for the light from those stars to reach our world in the present. I seeded life around those stars too, so a few million years from now some of the planets up there might have a rudimentary civilization. Unless I go back sooner and stir things up so they'll get started faster. I do that sometimes."

They stared at her. Even the gods looked stunned by Mew's accomplishment. May fainted, overcome by the feat of imagining just how powerful Mew had to be to do something like that. "Wait," Brock said finally. "You mean to tell us that you traveled in time."

"And brought a number of stars into being." continued Dawn.

"Just to create a constellation as a present for me?!" cried the astonished Misty. "That's.that's.that's incredible. I don't think _anyone's_ ever done anything that sweet for me, EVER! Oh, thank you!" She threw her arms around the pink kitten and hugged her gleefully.

"Dang," said a stunned Tracey.

"Wow," said an amazed Ash, staring up at the new (relatively speaking) constellation.

"Pika," said Pikachu. _Definitely._

"Dad, you're gonna have to come up with something _really_ good to top this for Mama's next birthday," Ta-Hotep said to his father. "Not to mention your anniversary."

Ash groaned and put his face in his hands. "You're right.somehow I don't think jewelry, poetry, or a night of wild sex will quite overcome this."

Dawn sighed wistfully. "Now I'm jealous. Is there anyone in the universe who will ever give _me_ a constellation as a sign of friendship or love?"

"Thank you very much," Misty said, crying happily as she let go of Mew and took her by the hands. "This is the best welcome-back gift I could possibly imagine!"

"It's about to get better," Mew said, waving at the sky and causing the moon to set and the sun to rise again until it was at the same position it had been just a few minutes ago.

"Is this going to seriously mess up people and Pokemon's schedules and biological clocks the world over?" Tracey asked uneasily.

"No dear, I took those into account before speeding up the planet's rotation," said Mew. "Anyway, look up there, above the garden on the roof! There's the next part of my gift."

They turned and looked around, shading their eyes so they wouldn't be blinded by the glare from the sunlight reflecting off the gold tips of the obelisks growing from the roof. To their amazement, there was an enormous radiant blue bird flying in circles over the palace, leaving sparkles and a rainbow trail in its wake. "Wow!" gasped an astonished Ta-Hotep. "It's a blue phoenix!"

"Those are supposed to be really good luck, right?" Dawn asked her mother.

Misty nodded. "Yes, according to Pokegyptian lore, if you see a blue phoenix flying in the air at the beginning of a new king or queen's reign, it's a sign that their rule shall be a prosperous one. Not necessarily peaceful, but certainly very prosperous."

"Well, that sounds like a good sign for us," Brock said. "Er, you, since you're ruling and I'm.you know.just a cook."

"It's pretty," said May, having woken back up a few minutes ago.

"I've gotta get this down!" Tracey said, rapidly drawing the phoenix. He paused in mid-sketch, glancing at the details he had captured, then looked back up at the phoenix, trying to figure out why the blue bird's features seemed so familiar. "Hey, wait a minute.isn't that Ho-Oh?"

The others blinked, and took a closer look. "Hey, yeah!" Ash said after a moment. "I think it is!" Reflexively he, Dawn, and May whipped out their Pokedexes, which apparently they had kept with them despite being transformed, although they were now more ornate and had hieroglyphs engraved into them.

"Ho-Oh, the Rainbow Pokemon," said Ash and Dawn's Pokedexes. "Its feathers are in seven colors. It is said that anyone seeing it is promised eternal happiness."

"Ho-Oh, the Rainbow Pokemon," said May's Pokedex. "Its feathers-which glow in seven colors depending on the angle at which they are struck by light-are thought to bring joy. It is said to live at the foot of a rainbow."

"Haha, yours is out of date!" Ta-Hotep mocked in sing-song.

"At least I have one," May said, sticking her tongue out at him.

"Um." Ta-Hotep tugged on his father's kilt. "Dad, can I have a Pokedex?"

"Maybe later, son," Ash said, looking somewhat puzzled by the fact that Ho-Oh was here and was blue instead of some other color.

"If Ho-Oh is supposed to be seven colors, why is it all blue?" asked a confused Brock.

Mew whistled innocently and hid a paintbrush with dried blue paint on the end behind her back. It hadn't been easy convincing the big bird to let her paint him, but when she threatened to release certain very embarrassing pictures from the last Legendary Christmas party to the public, Ho-Oh had been more than willing to comply. "Well, I should be going now, I have important business to attend to, by which I mean I need to fudge Mewtwo to try and show him the meaning of life."

There was a pause. ".Wait, you can figure that out through sex?!" cried an amazed Tracey.

"Well, if you do it the right way, then yes," said Mew.

"I KNEW IT!" Brock rejoiced.

"Mama, what does 'fudge' mean?" Ta-Hotep asked his mother.  
"Ah, we'll talk about it later," Misty said quickly.

"Now, you should all head inside, I've just allowed everyone in town to notice that a giant palace has appeared out of nowhere and made them curious to see what's going on. You should all get ready before then so you can properly greet your subjects as their new rulers. If you make a bad impression, they might not be willing to receive you, and you could have a revolt on your hands. And those are always nasty to put down," Mew commented.

"We could crush it with force," Ash said. "Or just make them stop. You know, change all of them and make them serve us. Wouldn't be that hard."

"Oh, sure, you could do that, but that wouldn't really set a good example now, would it?" Mew pointed out. "Just remember that the world's a bit of a different place now than it was five thousand years ago. What you used to rule then might not necessarily work now. But if you can adapt to the present, you should be okay, and keep from having the rest of Kanto declare war on you. Good luck! I'll be watching!" She waved cheerfully and teleported away, after mending the area where the Entei robot had been totally destroyed so no damage was visible. The servants would thank her for that later.

"Uh, was that supposed to discourage us?" Ash asked awkwardly after Mew was gone.

"No, I think she was just trying to warn us that governing a state isn't easy, now more than ever," Misty said. "I'm not worried. We can handle it. If we were able to handle Apep, we can handle being monarchs in the modern age too."

"Uh, didn't Apep kill us?" Dawn pointed out.

"Yes, but note that we're here and he isn't, therefore we must have done something right," Misty said calmly.

They started heading back towards the palace gates. "Hey, do you think any of the others survived?" Ta-Hotep asked.

"The other gods? Well, I guess it's possible," Ash admitted. "Heck, if we were able to come back, what's to stop them from returning too? We'll have to keep an eye out for anything like that.as the first back, we owe it to any others who might have survived to reincarnate as well!"

"Do you think any of them would be interested in me?" Dawn asked hopefully.

"Or me?" Brock asked desperately.

"I'm sure there will be," Misty said. "There's plenty of deities who would be happy to marry a lovely young woman like yourself, Dawn. And Brock.well, there are some women who like their men big, and even more who like men that can cook, so surely there's hope for you too."

"That makes me almost feel good about being stuck in a Snorlax body," Brock said happily.

May glanced at Ta-Hotep uneasily. _And I wonder if I, or Mom and Dad, will ever feel all right after what we've lost.I've lost my dreams and my brother, and they've lost their son. Can our world ever be right again after all that?_ She certainly hoped it could. Otherwise, all their sacrifices would have been for nothing.

Tracey was much more optimistic about all the changes that had occurred so far. He was comfortable with his new body, happy with his surroundings, and eager to get in on the ground floor of a new age. His mind was already brimming with the pieces of art he could fill this new kingdom with.

"So, think we'll be okay?" Ash asked Misty as they reached the top of the stairs.

"Hmm?" she said.

"You know, with what Mew said. I'm still a little worried," Ash said, pulling open the doors and allowing the others to go through first, Brock puffing and a little red in the face from climbing up all the stairs. "She's right, this world isn't the same as the one we once ruled a part of a long time ago. Even with everything we know about the present from our latest incarnations, can we still do this thing without messing up?"

She smiled and took his face in her hands. "Hey," she said. "If we could find each other again, in this lifetime, after being separated for five thousand years and all the many incarnations between then and now, I'm sure we can handle whatever the future throws at us." She kissed him then, their lips joining for what felt like far too short a time before she broke off and went inside.

Ash blinked after her, a little dazed. Pikachu giggled on his shoulder. Ash snorted and glared at him. "At least I _have_ a girlfriend. Unless you're going to start paying more attention to Bunneary?"

Pikachu was unfazed. _Well, since I'm the favorite Pokemon and practical 'brother' of a god, I'm sure women will be swarming all over me soon enough. Would it be a problem if I started a harem?_

Ash laughed as they went inside. "If you think you can get away with it without all the women tearing each other-or you-apart, more power to you, buddy, more power to you!" The door closed behind him.

Taking Mew's advice well to heart, Ash and Misty did their best to rule justly and fairly in the new world. The city of Cerulean was thrilled to have the prestige of honest-to-goodness ancient Pokegyptian deities living among and ruling over them, since it would certainly make the town a bigger tourist attraction than just being home to the Sensational Waterflower Sisters. The government of Kanto and the Pokemon League were not thrilled to hear that Cerulean was seceding itself from the rest of the country and declaring itself a sovereign power, especially since it meant the League would have to make some other out-of-the-way gym one of 'the' places to go to earn one of the eight requisite badges necessary to compete in the annual tournament. The army, led by Lt. Surge, attempted to storm the city, but the power of the ruling gods held them off and converted the invading forces to their cause, turning them into cat-people subservient to the divine king and queen and adding their might to the city-state's burgeoning development. They also conquered Vermilion City to the south, the converted Surge leading the charge himself in a bloodless coup and adding the city to the small growing empire. After seeing this, the government and the League was more than willing to negotiate terms with the newly named kingdom of 'Ailuria'. The small country came off pretty well in the bargain, mainly because the government of Kanto was terrified that Queen Bast would kill them or turn them into her servants if they pissed her off. The small kingdom became very prosperous as a result, and the two cities of Cerulean and Vermilion eventually expanded to the point where they merged together into one great capitol and city-state. The rulers of Ailuria were confident that in a few centuries their influence would have expanded enough to bring the rest of Kanto into their fold peacefully as well. Now if only those archaeologists would stop pestering them for information about what life was really like in Pokegypt thousands of years ago.

The royal palace became open as a place for people all over Kanto to come if they had nowhere else to go, and soon they had more than enough staff to manage the place properly, and then some. Plenty of stray Pokemon were made welcome as well, and soon the many chambers, gardens, and pools of the palace became full of life, the stone halls echoing with laughter and voices as the palace became a veritable city-within-a-city, a true capitol for the budding nation.

Ash and Dawn's mothers both moved in to the royal palace to live with their children, though it took Ayako a bit longer than Delia to get used to her child being a god, and still longer to get used to the fact that Dawn now had a _second_ mother. Still, she managed, just as Delia managed to frequently embarrass Ash in front of his friends and servants. Both of them became Glameow, with the promise that they would never, _ever_ become Puruglies.

Misty made good on her promise to reward Norman by showering him and Caroline with riches and turning him into a Persian-man so that he would be better able to relate to Ta-Hotep on his visits and perhaps feel a bit closer to the boy who had once been his son. (It also helped him make up a bit with Caroline. They're currently trying for a new child.)

May never became fully comfortable with her new place in life, but did the best she could to do her job well. Ta-Hotep became very fond of her, and she of him, and in time the pain of knowing he had once been her brother lessened somewhat as she got to know the god he had become a bit better. Although she never really liked it when he turned her into a full Skitty just to play with her, especially since _her_ Skitty was always trying to make love to her whenever she was stuck in that form and Ta-Hotep forgot to change her back. Things became a bit better for her, though, when her old rival and crush Drew quit coordinating and got a job in the palace as a court entertainer.

Daisy, Violet, and Lily are still Misty's loyal servants, and seem to be happy that way. The men they bed occasionally are just as happy. Is one of them the court artist Tracey, famous throughout the land for his masterful works of art? Well, what do you think?

Brock is still a Snorlax running the palace kitchen and dabbling in breeding the Pokemon living in the palace when he can. He has yet to find a girlfriend, but he's still looking.

Team Rocket is doing about as well as expected. They have yet to show themselves trustworthy (or competent) enough to have the Mark of Shame removed, just as Jessie is still too ugly and vindictive to have her iron mask taken off. Meowth and James have found a bit more happiness, Meowth because he's become oddly popular among the many other cat Pokemon living in the palace, and James because he's never hungry anymore now that he works in the kitchen. Now if only May's Munchlax would stop stalking him.

Dawn left for Sinnoh to renew her dreams of being a master Pokemon coordinator, with her parent's blessings. May felt envious, but knew she couldn't leave Ta-Hotep's side. Imagine her surprise when Ta-Hotep decided to travel along with her sister, and so May of course had to go to. It was invigorating to go on a Pokemon journey again, even if she didn't really get to accomplish much on her own other than bonding with the two royal siblings. And while she wished it was her receiving the Ribbon Cup at the end of the Sinnoh Grand Festival, not the princess, she still gave Dawn her sincerest congratulations.

As it turned out, some of the other Pokegyptian gods _had_ survived and managed to reincarnate themselves. It was later discovered that Ash's Totodile was the reincarnation of the Feraligatr god Sobek, Oak was the reincarnation of the wise scribe god Thoth, the late Lucario Ash had befriended at the Tree of the World's Beginning was the reincarnation of the death god Anubis (which made a lot of sense, since he was dead now), that asshole Paul was Set, Jessie's old Arbok was the cobra-headed Wadjet, and a great many others came forth in the days to come as well.

Pikachu also sort of became the incarnation of a god, though not a Pokegyptian one, after finding an old hammer someone had dropped in the forest out in the middle of nowhere and becoming the new avatar of Thor, god of Thunder. It didn't really make him look any different other than getting a neat winged hat and slightly boosted electric powers, but it made his vast harem of adoring female Pokemon love him even more.

Mewtwo has yet to find the meaning of life. Not for lack of trying, anyway.

Mew's still the blissful and enlightened, happy-go-lucky, scarily omnipotent adorable kitty she's always been. Not much of a surprise, really. Though she's considering swapping genders again in the near future.

Ash and Misty are happy as can be. Their life is good, their kids are great, the kingdom's doing swell, they're both in excellent shape (as is their relationship and sex life), and neither is aware that Apep has been reborn as well and is lying dormant, but will one day soon awaken and threaten everything they cherish once again.

The End?


	15. Shell Game

Shell Game

Disclaimer: Don't Own, Don't Sue.

I wrote this story, though I had a bit of help from Alex Warlorn, VulpixTrainer, and Tazkol, Master of Emeralds.

------

After returning to Kanto to begin hunting for the Frontier Brains, Ash, Brock, May, Max, and a surprise old face, Misty, are visiting Pallet beach for some much deserved rest and relaxation. Well, some of them...

"A contest on One Island?" May said reading the news blip on the organizer she had scrapped together the money for just the week before. "I'm there!"

The Sevii islands were just off of Kanto's coast, a sort of go between for the territory and Orange.

"And so am I!" Brock declared!

Everyone looked at him confused.

"What? I can't enter too?"

"Brock it's just... when it comes to contests... doesn't May beat you every time?"

"Heh. Beginners luck."

"Hey! I've been through three seasons already! I'm not a newbie!"

"I've been around since the, let me count, one, two, three, four, FIFTH episode!"

"And I'm **still** better at contests than you!"

"And you reek at battling!"

"Do I ask how well you could fit in a girl's swim suit?"

"Ah, so you're saying guys are better at battling than ladies?"

"No I... agh! Let do this!"

"'Using pokemon battles to settling grudges is illegal.'"

"No one asked you Max!"

"...I'm glad we're not that bad," Ash commented, totally ignorant of the irony of the situation.

Misty sweatdropped at that and then continued, "Come on Max, let's leave them here to their argument and look around. It's been a while since I've been here."

"Alright."

Ash, Misty, and Max left the two to squabble as they combed the shores of Pallet. After a while of exploring, they noticed something odd... A Squirtle Shell and two Blastoise Shells laying on the beach, apparently abandoned. Max walked up to them and inspected them closely.

"Were these here earlier?"

"I don't think so... you think that Jigglypuff was here earlier?" Ash asked.

"Maybe... I think we should check to see if they're alright."

The trio checked the shells, "That's odd, they're emp--", Max began, but the shells quickly snapped open and somehow around the three.

Ash & Misty's Pokéballs fell to the ground and out came Squirtle, Sceptile, Phanpy, Totodile, Gyrados, Psyduck, and Staryu.

"PIKAKPI!", Pikachu shouted.

The other Pokémon shouted their own protests as the trio's bodys resized to suit the shells, and their skin started becoming blue scales.

Ash turn to Misty "What is this!?" Misty said trying to pull the shell off her even she was now the size for the shell inside it.

Ash was having trouble as well when he felt the tail appear and saw Misty's "We must fight it, these things making us Blastoise" Ash spoke trying to fight the changes.

Ash & Misty's legs become thicker, trunk like, as their feet change shape with the claw toes of that of a Blastoise the clothes already destroyed and the shoes.

"Ash… we must beat it" Misty saw her arms change to the shape of a Blastoise the fingers disappearing and replaced by claws of a Blastoise the body now looking like a Blastoise.

"I am trying but it feel like it getting in my head" Ash said as the same thing happened he was now looking just like a Blastoise as well part from his head.

Misty felt her hair disappearing soon her head changing shape getting big and shaped like a Blastoise face and head, the neck now in the shell part mostly her ears now triangle her face now looking like a Blastoise she try to speak but the voice changed before her into that of a natural pokémon voice and the cloud in her mind changed in a second making her memories adjust and instincts to come into the mind taking complete control the old Misty no more.

Ash saw this and could do little about it when it happened to him part from his hat still on his head he felt the changes on his face happened and the hair disappeared his ears also changed he now a Blastoise as well the mind clouded then lifted to have his mind changed with memories and instincts that seem to be the NOW Ash form of mind. Both Blastoise they closing their eyes for a moment but as this happened Max were changing as well.

Max saw a tail appear he was panicking "I don't want to be a Squirtle" Max try to stop the changes but the long squirrel like tail fully formed then his arms and legs became stubby like normal squirtle limbs. Max felt his hair disappear then his face change shape the ears disappearing his head becoming round like an Squirtles.

Max try to scream but the cloud in his mind made him stop closing his eyes they soon open to show the natural red of a Squirtles eyes his mist clears just as the two Blastoise open their eyes and the cannons opened up aiming at Squirtle and the others firing a mist over them affecting their minds to accept the changed trainers as their friends or in some eyes 'boss' and more like a family unit. The mist having a affect on Squirtle he glowing and changing form as the mist fades tin place of Squirtle was a Wartortle, who walked behind his 'brother', Max, and placed a hand on his shoulder portion of his shell. At the time he put the hand on Max shell, Max put his glasses on the mist some how making them smaller to suit the Squirtle head of his.

-Hey Squirt. You okay?-, Leonardo - or 'Shades' as he was called by the Squirtle squad - Ash & Misty's eldest son, asked.

-Hey! Don't call me that! I'm the second oldest!-, Max protested.

-Yes, but you're still a squirtle, so I think I'm entitled to call you that for a while.-

-That's not fair!!!-

-Says you, squirt.-

At the same time...

-Say, Aniki, Oyabun?-, Hiro, the Sceptile, asked, while watching the sibling bonding.

-Yeah?-, Ash & Misty responded.

-Where are those idiot humans that always follow us around?-

-Which ones?- Misty asked.

-I think he means the ones who don't go after me.- Jean Luc responded.

-...They were arguing about their stupid contests, I think they were getting ready to battle,- Ash responded.

-Hmmph... Humans battle over the most trival things,- Hiro replied.

Meanwhile, Vince, the Totodile, was teaching the couple's youngest kids, Junior the Phanpy and Liz the Azurill, how to dance...

-Good Liz, keep it up! You're doing fine! But Junior, what's wrong with you? Two left feet?-, Vince asked.

-...Yes...-, Junior replied.

-Err... Junior, that's just an expression.-

With that, Vince continued the dance lesson.

Meanwhile, Tatsu the Gyrados and Staryu were a bit fed up with Drake the Psyduck. They decided that they'd have to get him to evolve so he'd stop being such a nuisance and help the family.

-Hey, Drake!-, Staryu shouted.

-Psi?- Drake asked just as he was hit by a WaterGun from Staryu and a Flamethrower from Tatsu...Right in the face.

This was enough to cause Drake to get the MOTHER of all headaches. The two Pokémon did their best to scramble to saftey as to be spared from Drake's wrath. While Staryu managed to reach the ocean and duck under water, Tatsu wasn't as lucky as he was held in place and hit with a powerful psychic attack. Luckily, he was a seasoned veteran of Gym Battles (despite not remembering it), and thus able to survive the attack. Upon releasing the attack and exausting his power, Drake the Psyduck began to glow with the light of evolution... into Golduck.

"Woah.. Headrush... Umm... Sorry about that, Tatsu."

"It's--- alright..."

- - -

It was about this time that Brock & May had realized the others had left them. Figuring they were off at the beach, the two headed there to search for their friends, their argument forgotten.

When they got their, they saw all the Pokémon Ash & Misty had with them, except Psyduck & Squirtle (though Brock figured that the Golduck and Wartortle were them - after all, what other 'mon has those cool shades?). Seeing the humans, the younger Pokémon scrambled behind the two large Blastoise that stood in the area, and the other adult Pokémon got battle ready.

Brock was taken aback by this - he's never seen Ash & Misty's Pokémon get ready to beat him up before, "P-Pikachu, what's wrong? Where are Ash & Misty?"

"W--Where's Max?", May added.

The two Blastoise got their canons ready. That's when Brock noticed their features. One was wearing Ash's hat, and the other had Misty's Blue eyes. Peeking from behind their legs was a small Squirtle with Max's glasses.

"May! Something's happened to them! THEY are Ash, Misty, and Max!"

May tried to build up her bravery, "Max... Max come here."

The small squirtle hid behind Ash again.

"Max, come here NOW..."

Still no answer.

May reached for her Pokéball, ready to catch her little brother and bring him to someone who might be able to return him to normal.

An angry look quickly crossed both Blastoise's faces, and they fired off hydrocannons, which blasted the two into a nearby rock formation.

Brock took this opportunity to retreat, however, May crawled foreword, the jets of water bruising her bones, she had to hang on, she had to try, if only she could touch him, just hold him, maybe she could reach her brother who she knew had to still exist in that pokemon, she had to she couldn't... just... couldn't... Max. As May struggled to crawl forward, she didn't notice that she was shrinking at a rapid pace, or her skin going blue. It became harder and harder to move, but not just from the water... her body started becoming stiff as what seemed like an eggshell formed around her. Soon as the stream of Water stopped, there was a small Blue Egg with a Bubble Design laying there, wrapped oddly in a pile of human clothes.

Misty looked at her Egg and smiled, before she looked at Ash in confusion. -Why is our Egg wrapped in human clothes?- She seemed nervous and rather irritated as to why a human would do that.

-I think Professor Oak wrapped the Egg up, saying something about it being not warm enough to hatch… that man is a good human, he introduced me to my best friend Jean Luc and I am glad he did.- Ash took on a faraway look only to have Misty whack him a little.

-Don't get on memory lane just yet… we need to get our Egg to safety.- Misty yelled irritated at how Ash could be in his own world in any situation.

- - -

Meanwhile, Brock had ran to Prof. Oak's laboratory and explained what he knew of what happened. They were understandably skeptic at first, but Brock seemed so POSIITVE. Prof. Oak told Brock to stay with Tracey, who would tend to Brock's minor wounds, while he and Deliah went to check it out. They decided to take Bulbasaur with them, to keep from being attacked.

- - -

Meanwhile, Deliha and Bulbasuar where walking through the scene that Brock had detailed, only to find no sign of anything, never mind a family of Blastoise.

"May! may are you here dear?" She shouted concerned.

"Bulbasaur! BULBASAUR!" Bulbasuar shouted for his former trainer.

"Any sign of them, Deliah?", Oak asked as he walked up behind her.

"No! Oh, Ash!" She said sinking her face into her hands.

"You'll find him, Deliah", Oak said trying to sound comforting.

"BULBA! BULBASAUR!" Bulbasaur perked up, excited.

They followed Bulbasaur, until they came across a crude nest made mostly of sandrocks and shells, four turtle shells of random sizes as well as a bundle rapped in what seemed to be old clothing.

"Those are May's clothes!" Deliah shouted, a little to loudly as the noise didn't get past the sensitive ears of a mother Blastoise protecting her egg.

Misty came out of her shell and got to her feet at surprising speed, she looked over and glared at Deliah and Bulbasuar but her looks softened when she saw Professer Oak standing nearby.

-Ash! Boys! Wake up, we have visitors.- She said softly as she began to shake the larger of the shells, when she recieved nothing but a bunch of groans she aimed her tanks at them and fired forcing the shells out of the nest as well as spraying mist everywhere.

As Ash, Max and Leonardo got out of there shells Deliah began scratching her arm, it was starting to itch for some reason. Deliag never bothered to look down at her skin, if she had she may have noticed that it was turning blue. Slowly her body seemed to expand until her cloths tore off revealing a shell but to her it was nothing new, she had always had a shell. Her hair receeded into her skull as her ears climbed to the top of her head, her nose and and mothu bulged out into a small snout as her arms and legs shortened and her hands and feet became paws. Two scales on her shell opened as two large canons shot out.

Ash stared at her for a minute before a Blastoise smile appeared on his face -Mom!- he said as he ran up and hugged the aged blastoise.

Leo and Max also ran up -Grandma!- they shouted as they hugged her feet

From somewhere beyond the nest a voice spke out -Grandma!- it shouted as Juniour came rushing over and jumped into Deliha's arms.

As the sprinkle of water decended to Bulbasuar's level he noticed a éball sticking out of May's old pokebelt, as a white light enveloped him, he shot a razor leaf at it before his vision was covered over by the bright white light. The Pokéball opened to and the white light arranged itself into the form of another Bulbasuar. Blossom looked on at the Bulbasuar evolving before her eyes. Slowly the light faded away to reveal a slightly larger Bulbasuar-like creature with it's bulb open to reveal a closed flower.

-Can't keep yourself out of those weird human gadgets can you, Blossom?- he said as he moved towards her -You know you gotta be careful around here, the boss's mate is pretty sensitive about that egg of hers.-

-Sorry, Strike- she said as she nuzzeled next to him -It's a good thing your back, I missed you, how is the boss's mother?-

-Oak said she is fit as a fiddle-, Strike said, -So anything new happen? Anyone else evolve well i was away?- he asked his eye casualy moving towards Leo.

-I don't actually know, how about we take a walk down by the beach and find out?- she asked.

-I like the sound of that! Lets go!- Strike said as he and blossom started off towards the beach.

Meanwhile the humoungus group hug that had enveloped Delia finally seperated.

-So, how are you mom?- ash asked

- I'm fine, son. Nothing to worry about. The Professer says I'll make my hundred years easily.- she assured him.

While the professor didn't experience a physical change, his memories were being rewritten. He remembered a few years ago meeting a young Squirtle who looked excessively lonely, so he released a Pikachu he had meant recently to accompany the poor thing. He hadn't seen the Pokémon again until recently, when he, all grown up as a Blastoise, with a mate, arrived, bringing along a sickly looking elderly Blastoise. Along with the Pikachu, he was accompanied by various other Pokémon. Among the other Pokémon where a Wartortle wearing sunglasses, and a Squirtle who appeared to have trouble seeing. The male Blastoise's mate was carrying an Egg, which didn't seem to be in very good condition either.

Oak took in the Egg and the elderly blastoise for a checkup, and had one of his assistants make the Squirtle a pair of glasses that would let him see. Oak identified the problem with the Egg, and carefully wrapped it in some clothes that his granddaughter had long outgrown. The Pokémon decided to leave some of their friends behind, as they were tired or sick, and also left their Ivysaur, to assist the professor in healing the elderly Blastoise, whom the Professor guessed was the mother of the Squirtle he had helped long ago.

"...Well, Ash. I know you're not going to like this, but I think it might be a good idea for you to move."

Ash gave Professor Oak an iquisitive look.

"Trainers come to this beach to catch Pokémon all the time. An entire family of various Pokémon would be too big a chance to pass up. If your mate agrees, I can call a friend of mine and have you stay at a protected Island in the Orange Archipelago," Oak continued, "And I know you've been there, the Snorlax friend of yours is from the Orange Islands."

A short pause. "I'll send the others over, and you can all talk it over for the night. I'll expect an answer in the morning."

After hearing Oak's, Turk spoke up first, surprising everyone -I say we go for it-

-I agree- Bayleef predictably said

-You WOULD say that- Strike countered.

-Why _should_ we leave?- the leader of ash's tauros spoke up

-You just want to stay because gary just caught a heard of Miltank- Noctowl said.

-If there's food, I'll go- Snorlax said.

Vince Shrugged -Why not?-

-sure, i don't know, maybe- cyndiquill said a little scared.

-If we leave, it'll be as a family.- Jean Luc finally spoke up -I'll be waiting to see you in front of the Professor's place-

-Jean...- Ash begain to speak up.

Jeal Luc looks at Ash, his cheeks sparking -I'll be seeing you- Pikachu walked off.

- - -

Jean Luc waited for his family in front of Oak's Laboratory, his cheeks sparking threateningly at any human who looked ready to battle him. The extrmely large group of Pokémon eventually wandered to Prof. Oak's Laboratory. Obviously they were going to accept, as even Misty was in the group, cradling her egg.

-Hey, guys!- Jean Luc waved.

-Hey, Jean. We decided we should go. It's for the sake of the baby, after all.- Ash noted. The group noded and entered the building.

"Ash, you're here I see. Have you decided?"

Ash nodded.

"And your answer?"

Ash nodded again "Toise."

"That's great. I've called Proffessor Ivy, and we have the transporter system ready..."

Prof Oak was interrupted by the egg that Misty was carrying began to glow.

"SQUIRTLE!" the newborn girl shouted.

A nearby,s hy Squirtle peeked out of her shell.

As Misty set down her daughter, he daughter wobbled over to the other one she sees nearby, but the other one immedately withdrawls into her own shell.

oak sighed as he looked at the squrtile "poor child, her mother came to me carying the egg, i tested her and found she had a terminal illness, she died before the egg hatced i'll probably have to give her to some trainer eventually" oak said a tear fell from his eyes.

Misty looked ready to cry, and then took a step towards the child.

- Come out, poor dear. -

The Squirtle shyly looks out of her shell at the nearby squirtle and blastoise. - M-- Mommy? -

- If you want me to be. And this will be your little sister. -

- R-Really? -

- Yes. What's your name? -

- What's.. What's a name? -

- Do you know how old you are at least? -

- Just a couple of days... -

- Okay. I'll call you Rain. And this is your sister, Storm. -

- Hey, wait a moment... - Ash interrupted.

- Hush, dear, you got to name the last two. -

- Heh. She's got me there... - Ash noted to himself, rubbing the back of his head shyly.

-...Well, I think we've taken up enough time here...- Turk pointed out.

-Yeah, we need to get home. Our new home. - Jean Luc added.

The Large group of Pokémon one by one stood on the teleporter, and were sent off to the Orange Islands. The Blastoise, Wartortle, and Squirtle all turned and waved goodbye to Oak, before they too stepped onto the teleportation pad. Somehow, Oak couldn't help but feel some tears come to his eyes, as if he just said his last goodbye to an old friend.


	16. Double Hocus Pokémon

**Double Hocus Pokémon**

Disclaimer: Don't own, Don't sue.

This Chapter was written by VulpixTrainer. This is his first story involving the cannon characters, but we hope you enjoy it.

* * *

Ash Ketchum and his traveling friends were all gathered around a campfire in a forest in his home region. They had all decided to travel with Max as he traveled through his second region of the Pokémon world. He already having beaten all the Gym Leaders, as well as getting into the top ten of the Hoenn League, a feat that Ash was shocked at. But at the same time proud. Saying to Brock and the others that it must have been due to watching him and Norm all this time, he was getting a little wiser now that he was in his early twenties. He also couldn't forget how Max stole his dad's gym badge to prevent Ash from getting it.

The sun was setting and one thing that had become the normal nighttime ritual was Misty and Ash getting into an argument about whose turn it was to gather firewood tonight, a full moon was slowly rising over the tops of the trees as the sun set into the west.

Brock was stirring a stew pot and already the smell of it was making Ash's stomach gurgled with hunger. This only caused Misty to glare at him. "What? But you just ate two wild apples already. Don't tell me you are still starving?"

Brock only laughed. "Hey… you know Ash, always is rushing around, he just can't sit still." He bowed his head and continued to stir the stew.

Max was sitting in front of a tree studying another large book on Pokémon and was doing a fairly good job of tuning out the distractions of the bickering twosome. However there was one thing missing, May had decided to stay home in Hoenn and try again for the Grand Festival, last they had heard she had won two ribbons already, an impressive feat in that these were going on Sinnoh rules now.

"Well, excuse me Misty." Ash shot back. "But Pikachu and I were training to try and keep on top of our game." He smiled and scratched Pikachu under the chin. "Isn't that right buddy?"

Misty only looked at him. "Well, I got the firewood last night. So you do it tonight." However before anyone could say another word on the subject Brock interrupted. "Why don't you both go out and get firewood? I am sure that we can divide up the remaining firewood for our larger Pokémon to carry."

"That is right." Max chimed in without looking up from his book. "We still have another night in the forest at least. So this should cut down on time tomorrow for wood, and that way, we won't have to listen to you two argue." He then returned his full attention to the book in his hand.

Ash and Misty looked at each other before turning their head in opposite directions. "Fine, we'll do it." They both said at the same time, only to glare at one another and storm off in opposite directions out of the camp.

Ash moving at what seemed to be a brisk walk, but almost seemed to be his normal walking speed now.

Misty was soon in the forest and had slowed her walk to a small crawl, looking out for the scariest Pokémon that she could think of out here… Bug Types. Oh how she hated them, looking icky and slimy. She also thought that they were out to get her, by getting in her hair, crawl over her, and in general make her life miserable. Of course it didn't help that her Water type Pokémon wouldn't have that big of an advantage on land against them. However even though he was slow and cautious, she was still picking up sticks and twigs, along with a few branches, all the while looking out for her dreaded enemy, the Bug Pokémon. "I will not be afraid." She soon began to chant due to the fact that her jitters were getting so bad that she was beginning to see Bug Pokémon all around her. All sitting around watching her with blank eyes and unmoving bodies, it was the unmoving bodies that was scaring her the most… her skin was crawling as well as if tiny invisible legs were walking all over her skin. She failed to notice the small white stick strands that began to hang from the leaves as she walked further into the woods to try and find more firewood.

Ash meanwhile was walking through the other side of the woods; however he felt nervous, something was not right, the noises were more muted to the point of faint whispers, and he just felt like he had been dunked into an electric bath. He had been getting these strange emotions and feelings now for a week now. Ever since he and Pikachu misjudged a Volt Tackle and it ended up hitting him instead of the target. But he just couldn't shake it, very few Pidgey were singing or for that matter night time Pokémon noise. He looked down at Pikachu and then around. He had become more observant now, and he could see dead spider nests around, and he began to worry a little of what they had walked into now. Suddenly he heard a scream of terror and that caused him to jump into the air.

Misty was frozen stiff in fright and terror as she stared at what were victims of a Spider nest, a large one at that. She was shaking and staring at all of the small Spinarak who were crawling around the webbing and just going about their business, it was what was higher up that really got her scared, three Ariados were also sitting in the webbing and she felt that were looking at here intently. She was trying to walk backwards… but in doing so, she was becoming entangled in a trip wire to tell about prey, and since the forest had become depleted of more common prey of theirs… they were beginning to think about this almost paralyzed morsel of prey, of course they knew that this kind of meat could summon dangerous predators, they were also, knowing that they wouldn't have to worry about another meal till the Spinarak left for their own areas. The Ariados began to slowly lower themselves to the ground floor to pull off the sleep bit to allow them to have an easier time with the finishing blow.

Ash was running, he had skirted the camp, while he followed Pikachu as he was in front, not by a large margin but was still leading the way, he could feel the air around him buzz with some hidden force as he raced against a hidden clock, he couldn't bear the thought of losing Misty, not now… he still wanted to tell her he loved her. But right now, it looked like he would be able to do anything; suddenly she heard another scream and the sound of clattering wood against wood. Pikachu suddenly bolted left and let lose a bolt of electricity, which not only attacked the unseen attackers, but was drawn and into Ash, but instead of the pain that he had felt in the past, he felt a warm tingling sensation before he was choking on a cloud of dust, most likely thrown up into the air. Yet something in his memory made this experience feel very familiar, something that conjured up thoughts of Murkrow and witches.

Pikachu turned around for the moment, having scared the Ariados away from Misty who began to run now to where they the bolt of electricity was coming from. However when she reached it, she saw a most unusual sight… that is until her memory kicked in. She saw what must be Ash's Pikachu, but next to him was another Pikachu wearing Ash's current hat… however the Pikachu it looked like it was in pain with sparks coming from the electrical sacks of the Pokémon. "Ash?" she whispered before the Pikachu let lose a powerful and dizzying Thunder attack, knocking out the Ariados behind Misty, hitting Misty, and Pikachu who grimaced as if the attacked hurt maybe a little more than it should have, Misty having not developed the hardened immunity to electric attacks blacked out right away, however Pikachu… and Ash, shocked at how it seemed that a Thunder Attack seemed to come from him both saw another cloud of dust, this one a pink color burst up around Misty, while some of it floated around and Pikachu inhaled a little of it right before he looked at his former trainer, a confused and horrified look on his face.

_"Ash?" _Pikachu asked with concern. "_Pikapi? Are you all right?"_ He slowly inched to Ash how was swaying from the sudden outburst of what he felt was his own energy.

_"How do you keep this up pal?" _He asked Pikachu, _"I feel very tired all of a sudden… I am a Pikachu again." _He said it more like a statement then a question but Pikachu only nodded his head.

_"So is Pikachupi," _He stopped at Ash's confused look at him. _"Misty, she is Pikachupi."_ He said trying to explain it. Ash blinked and suddenly looked right at Pikachu with a look as if trying to read his buddies mind or body language at least.

"_So…. Do you have a name for yourself?" _Ash asked he felt that since he could understand Pikachu, which didn't happen last time, but he wasn't questioning it fully at the moment.

"_Yes I do Pikapi."_Pikachu said with pride and puffed out his chest a little. _"It is Jean Luc." _Pikachu tilted his head to the left in a confused look at he looked at Ash. _"What? Never heard of Poke Trek Next Generation? Professor Oak is a big fan of it… and I like the Captain, he had a Pikachu as a companion and he helped saved his life a few times." _

Ash raced up on all fours to where Misty had been and saw that the Ariados that had come after her were fainted and…. She was a Chu as well. He looked really nervous and agitated at the prospect of Misty as a Pikachu as well. He didn't know why but he called her by the name that Pikachu called her.

Meanwhile back at the campsite, another problem was going on. For minutes after Ash and Misty had left the site that a girl dressed in what appeared to the costume of a witch walked into the camp and was frantic now. She recognized Brock who remembered her, but Max was confused.

"What?" Max shouted. "You got to be joking, that cannot happen, science…"

"Science doesn't know everything my little bookworm." The girl said in a sophisticated English accent. "Also, for the second time, call my Lilly, now it is imperative that…." At that moment they all heard and saw the Thunder attack from the forest. "It might be too late already." She said out loud. She looked into one of the trees. "Murkrow, go find Ash and Pikachu… and any one that might have been involved in that attack, hurry, we might not have enough time on our hands." She sounded worried.

Max looked at Brock. "Is she like this when you meet her?"

Brock only chuckled. "No, she was worse, which means, this is really, really serious."

"You can say that again." She said showing up in the middle of the group scaring both Max and Brock. "You see… I was researching the potion that I messed up with Ash, and I came across something most disturbing. You see, if the potion is not properly flushed out of the system, it will natural grow and build up in the drinker's body until, well, a natural occurrence of the potions effects, only this time, permanent. But I found an antidote just in case I was too late, now I only hope he was not nearby anyone that could get hit by his release of electricity, it would prove most troublesome."

"Why is that?" Max asked disbelief on his young face. "Because they might catch Ash thinking he was a Pokémon?" He said that in a mocking tone of voice.

"No," Lilly said with a deadpan voice. "I made only enough antidotes for one person."

Brock only nodded his head. "So… if Ash's electricity hit another person… that person would also become a Pikachu?" Lilly only nodded. "What about Pikachu?"

"He would be fine." Lilly said while looking at the tattered and stained, and smudged, and almost un-legible book that had started the whole mess in the first place.

The Murkrow didn't fly true this time, but rather took dips and turns as it avoided some webbing while using dark energy to melt and eat away the threads in his way. Soon he found a sight that he knew he was looking for, a Pikachu wearing a trainer's hat, another Pikachu, both of whom where surrounding another Pikachu who seemed to be a little more freaked out than the first two.

"_Hey you three… you need to follow me, someone wants to talk with all of you." _The Murkrow mentally chuckled as he saw the shocked look on Misty's face at hearing a Pokémon that was not a Pikachu speak to her, and she understood the conversation. Before he could be asked any questions the Dark Crow Pokémon took flight from the tree and into the night sky with a full moon giving off more than enough light needed to see by on their journey back to camp.

Misty only glared at the new Pokémon with anger. _"Who are you, ordering me around… why, I could…"_

Ash put a yellow paw on her shoulder to try and calm her down. _"Now Misty, don't get too huffy and puffy, for all we know that Murkrow might help us solve our problem, and help us understand what is going on with this sudden change."_Ash looked once more at the Murkrow, a gut feeling telling him he had seen that Pokémon before… but that would…

_"Would you two stop standing around and acting like a bunch of Slowpoke, and shake your tails. That is Lilly's Murkrow and that would mean she would help you two out." _Jean Luc shouted and got to all fours before following the circling Murkrow who then took off back to camp. Misty and Ash both looked at each other and took off after the other two as fast as they could.

Back at the main Camp Max was walking around Lilly who was sitting on the ground and was putting together a fire pit. "You are positive that book of yours makes you able to do all these crazy things?" He was shocked but having grown a little older, he felt that after reading a little, that a human could not turn into a Pokémon, sure a Pokémon could talk human, either by the mind or as Meowth had shown, by sheer determination, vocally.

Lilly was getting a little irritated and her voice showed it with her accent getting thicker suddenly. "If you don't believe me… wait a few minutes and you will see." She turned her head to look at the forest as a Murkrow fluttered out of the branches and three Pikachu ran out from the underbrush. Lilly's face fell for a moment before returning to her optimistic look. "Good job Murkrow, you found Ash… I take it one of the two others was hit by his electricity?"

The Murkrow only nodded his black feathery head and looked away, knowing what most likely would happen when Lilly presented the situation to the two. Which he felt would not be taken too well by the ill tempered Pikachu.

Lilly took a deep breath and looked at the three Pikachu. "Okay, this will be brief and I will say it one time only." She looked at Ash, "That potion you had to understand Pokémon? Remember how I goofed? Well…. I am afraid it didn't completely clear up…. It has been building up slowly in your system and well, tonight it seemed you had such a fright or rush of adrenaline that you triggered the change. Unfortunately, in doing so, you let lose a major jolt of electricity and in hitting another human, it acted like the potion and changed them into a Pokémon, only…" here she stopped and closing her eyes in fear. "It gave the same curse to them as you have…. Unless you have the antidote within twenty four hours, you will remain stuck as a Pikachu, but it takes forty eight hours to brew it." She seemed saddened. "That means… that one of you have to stay a Pikachu."

Misty reacted just as most people might have who had been around her for a long time. _"What do you mean one of us? You did account for the possibility for more than one, right? Why… if you are joking… That's it, I don't care, and I am going to shock you just to see if you join us." _She didn't know why she said that but she was angry, because no matter what, Ash and she could not be able to further their relationship any further.Only to everyone but the Pokémon, it sounded like a mad and shouting Pikachu was talking. However the point was mute when she tried to attack Lilly only to have the electricity bounce off her clothing.

Lilly only smiled. "I knew someone might attack so I did a rubber spell for my clothing, very handy." She looked at both of them and was sorrowful in her voice. "I am sorry, but I could only find enough ingredients to make one antidote, I wish I could have found and made more, but I ran out of time." She looked down and pulled out a small clear plastic flask with a yellow colored liquid swirling around acting like it was energized with some unseen force. "This is all I have."

Misty looked at Ash and then at everyone else before stepped back, only Ash did the same action, both of them saying at the same exact time. _"You take the antidote… I'll be fine." _They both looked at each other and blushed and looked away.

Max who was looking at this only rolled his eyes. He had become maybe a little too dependent on his knowledge to realize just what he might be thinking. "If you have only one… why not divide it? I am sure that it will stay potent and both will be cured. It is simple as mathematics."

Lilly looked at Max like he was not getting it but sighed. "I guess that is worth a shot… that way… if it doesn't work… they can remain friends this way." She had guessed the meaning that had happened between the Pikachu very well. "Well, I need two bowls and a measuring cup to make sure that I can split it up as evenly as I can." Brock soon had one glass and two bowls; Brock with his many years of cooking took the flask and empties the contents evenly between the two bowls just by eyeballing the entire procedure.

Soon the bowls were in front of Ash and Misty and they both looked at each other. They gave a silent node of the head to each other and began to drink the yellow concoction. Ash felt it tasted like the tang of the electricity in the air right before a major lightening show, while Misty felt it tasted to her like a warm tingle. However both were surprised when their vision were clouded by puffs of smoke and soon they were standing, on their hands and knees dressed like they were right before they had transformed, making it look a little comical.

Max only stared in awe as his glasses slide down his noise a little. He was just speechless at this predicament, it defied all his logical thoughts and he finally had to admit that maybe… he could unbury some of his more childish thoughts and beliefs since science had not, nor could not explain to him what had just happened in front of him.

Brock only smiled and packed the bowls away to be washed out later, and gave Misty and Ash two clean bowls of his stew which they began to eat as if both of them had gone a day without eating. "Lilly would you like to join us in the meal as well?" He was hoping to keep her around at least long enough to allow them to find out if there might be any side effects.

Ash however was looking at Pikachu, before turning to face Lilly. "Uh…. I still can understand Pikachu." He sounded worried, and indeed Misty looked worried as she looked at a tree with a Pidgey in it singing.

Lilly only smiled. "That is what the potion was supposed to do without your side effect; you wished to better understand Pokémon, so you got it." She then cringed. "There is no undoing it now though."

Ash only smiled at this, "That is good, just as long as it is only that and nothing else, come on Misty, let's eat." He looked at Misty who was looking at the Pidgey as if in a trance about the song. "Come on, you can look and listen to the Pidgey later." He was trying to try and understand everything that has come to terms.

The dinner went without incident and Lilly left shortly before midnight, after that everyone went back to their tents and went to sleep. Pikachu having found out that the Spider Pokémon were leaving and splitting up since the encounter of three Pikachu that could defeat some of their strongest warriors.

However, the next morning more than one surprise was waiting for the group; everyone woke up in the morning to three separate screams. Loud enough to wake Brock and Max from their slumber and into the early light of a pre dawn day, making shadows and light seem more phantom like in appearance and other worldly in feel.

Brock and Max both looked around and noticed that Ash's tent was moving about as if someone was thrashing about as if trying figure out what was going on.

Max was looking perplexed. "Brock… I thought I heard two Pikachu cry out in terror… and a strange human yell." He was looking at Misty's tent which was not moving, denoting that either Misty was asleep still or… something else had happened.

Brock looked at Max. "I think I should check on Misty first and you Ash." Brock started to move to Misty's tent before Max could say anything and was soon hitting the fabric of the tent. "Misty? You okay? Is everything…. ARGGHHH!!!!!" Brock yelled as electricity surrounded him as he fell back from the tent. However the electricity did tear a few holes from the tent fabric allowing a very angry looking Pikachu hope out from the inside of the tent. The Pikachu then began to angrily move on all fours to Ash's tent.

Max suddenly moved and began to yell at Ash's Tent which caused fumbling at the front of the tent as if the person could not fully understand the working of a zipper. But that would be confusing because only ash… Suddenly the zipper pulled down and a head poked out, however the head looked nothing like Ash's head, but the hat reminded Brock of Ash's first adventure journey. A most confusing process that was making no sense to Brock since the said hat was still back at home and not with Ash.

The Pikachu blinked and looked at the human and tilted her head. "Pikachu?" she said with concern.

"Yes Pikachupi… it is me… I don't why… but I seem…"

Max interrupted the human. "Who are you? Where is Ash? Or Pikachu for that matter, what did you do to them?" He was looking rather irritated and fearful. He was slowly moving his hand to his belt where at the moment only two Pokéballs were clipped to it.

"Easy Max, no need to send out Poochyena just yet… it is me, Pikachu… only Jean Luc is what I call myself." He looked nervous… "I guess… that might not be a good name right now?" He was looked around.

Max looked at Brock and then at Misty before back to the speaker. "You mean… Ash… reverted? But how, isn't that supposed to be impossible now?" He was looking like his mind was going to have a burn out with all the illogical answer now floating around him.

Brock finally was able to move. "I want to know is…. How are we going to explain this to Mrs. Ketchum, or the police, we can't have Ash just vanishing…. Then some human without a license show up with two Pikachu." He had voiced something that they all looked around nervously.

"That could present a problem." Jean Luc said as he pitched his ear which had slowly began to grow a yellow fur color and as they watched the clothing shifted into fur and he began to shrink, while Misty began to grow… only she was wearing her Pajamas.

Soon Ash has replaced Pikachu's head and looked around. "That was… freaky." He said as the sun began to come up over the tree tops

Brock only now was able to sit up and looked around. "Uh… I would think that we should see Professor Oak."

Max only blinked. "The Professor Oak…. That is awesome… I am going to talk to Professor Oak again."

Ash whispered to Misty, "Do you think he is going to stay as a Junior Assistant Misty? Or do you think Tracy will get jealous with Max?"

Misty laughed. "Knowing those two, their personalities would allow them to work together, Tracy likes to draw, and Max is always talking about the new discoveries… with those two around… I think Oak would be able to finally dedicate more time to his poems."

Ash only smiled and nodded his head only to fall over at Max's complaining now. "Why are we sitting around here for? Let's get going."

Ash recovered quickly and shouted back at Max. "Because we haven't had breakfast yet… so we leave after that." He would regret saying those words for Max downed his food faster than Ash and then began to complain about them being slow on getting out on the road.

Ash signed as they finally climbed the final steps to Oaks lab. "Finally… I never knew you could run here from the northern regions of Kanto in two days." He was dragging his feet and seemed to be almost ready to collapse to the ground.

Misty was behind him. "Come on now… I bet Oak will be about ready to serve lunch and who knows, he might offer us some."

Ash right away perked up and began to do stretching. "Well, what are we waiting for?" he asked before turning to face the top of the hill only to fall back. "How did Max get up there already?" He cried as he saw Max already knocking at the door all starry eyed and excited… just about as excited as he was to receive his Trainer's license.

Ash with Misty's help got up on his feet and began to walk forward to Professor Oak's door as well.

"Hi Professor, how're you doing?" Ash said meekly not knowing how to say what needed to be said. He just hope that Max had not blabbed anything as of yet.

Misty annoyed at Ash's comment only rolled her eyes and made an annoyed sound that everyone had grown accustomed to hear during their trek back to Oak's lab.

Professor Oak smiled. "Ah, Ash, how are things doing? Your Pokémon are doing fine, although I am..." He was cut off midsentence as Muk body slammed the professor in a hug, before seeing Ash and body slammed him too in a Muk hug.

Ash however was having trouble breathing and suddenly he let loss a Spark attack, although it didn't harm Muk too much the surprise was enough to get Muk off him, only Ash was now a Pikachu, and when Max looked around, Misty was also a Pikachu and Pikachu was once again dressed in the Kanto attire looking ill at ease standing so tall.

Professor Oak looked at the sudden change. "Oh…. Well, in this case, you better get inside now… we should discuss this in private." He looked around and began to user them into his lab looking around to make sure no one saw them.

As soon as they were inside, he directed his question at everyone in the room. "What is going on here? This is most interesting on what is happening." He was hiding his shock and horror behind the mask of someone that wanted to hear everything. He was very worried about Ash now.

What followed was Brock and Max explaining about the last week of events. This prompted Brock and Pikachu, who was a human to switch between each other and spoke about Lilly's first attempt at creating a potion on people being able to understand Pokémon, Ash had volunteered to help gather ingredients, and in the end was turned into a Pikachu, much to everyone including Lilly's surprise. Of course the next day the spell wore off and they had moved on, letting the events fall back into the past.

Professor Oak, a professor that had believed in legendaries and followed the myths was finding that even he was somewhat disbelieving in these events. He rose from the chair that he had been sitting in and left the room, he came back with a small box, looking more like a fishing tackle box, yellow with a red top, he set it down on a table and opened it up revealing a blood sample taking kit, he turned around and looked at all three people affected. "I will need to take your blood samples to run some tests… in both forms if you don't mind, maybe I can help you in keeping in one form… or at least make it more stable." He then moved forward, motioning for Pikachu to sit down, he quickly wrapped a rubber hose around Jean's upper arm, after he had rolled up his short sleeve. He then sticks a needle into the arm after finding a good vein. He then began to draw blood, it was not long till he was done and put a cotton ball, which was wrapped in a yellow sticky gaze. He then moved forward to the two Pikachu and did the same procedure. He had barely finished labeling Misty's Pikachu's blood when pink smoke filled the room and all three had changed species once again. Max and Brock barely moved in seeing this, but Oak jumped a little. Thankfully he did not drop the vials he was holding and once again moved about to finish his task. When he left to put the blood in a safe location, he had twelve vials of blood total to look at.

Brock only shook his head. "I think this might be a rare case to have a professor look at human blood… of course." He didn't finish when Max interrupted.

"But… what are we going to do? We can't just have a teen carrying two Pikachu without a license… it would cause trouble. Besides, they are all half Pokémon and half Human anyway." He was sounding genuinely worried.

"Don't worry about that dear Max." Professor Oak said as he walked back into the lab. "I thought of that, while Jean Luc was sitting, I took his picture and registered him as a Pokémon Trainer, special condition, you see, he is officially an assistant of this lab," He laughed. "Unofficially, it will be a way to try and cover for your friend's disappearances."

Ash looked shocked. "Lab… but don't you need an education to become one? I mean spending years in school?"

Oak only laughed. "Ah… but that is why it is a special condition, you see I am now putting into the records a small research project of how Pikachu from two different families would interact as team mates… when they are relied on as the power house that is." He laughed, it would stop questions from most people, but he knew that he would most likely have to call in help from other professors to help him, from his student now Professor Elm, to the hands on Professor Birch, Then there was Professor Ivy in the Orange Island, maybe the Islands would hold an answer since there were many legends surrounding Lugia and the three titans there already, and finally the most serious minded Rowan in Sinnoh… he just hoped he could get an answer soon, till then, he just hoped that Ash and Misty would deal with the situation they were in. He left again writing notes, but returned with a pack. "To make it official, Jean Luc will need his starter pack." Brock took it and only nodded his head.

"Thank you Professor." Brock said as he slung it on his shoulder, making him look a little like a hiker then the breeder he wanted to become.

They all looked around as they stood up. However Oak stopped them at the front door. "Okay Pikachu, what do you want to go by? I doubt people would take you serious if you keep your name Jean Luc, I doubt people would think you anything else but connected to the Poke Trek series." Oak then looked at the Picture and then at Ash, "However, I will be putting him as Ketchum. You do look like brothers pretty well."

Ash looked down at Pikachu and listened as he spoke. Ash then looked at Pikachu and then at Oak. "He said that he wanted to go by Howard, he thinks it well to not stick out too much in case things happen."

Oak only nodded his head. "Very well, Howard Ketchum, come by tomorrow to pick up your pokédex and lab papers, oh, about… ten in the morning, we don't want a repeat of oversleeping." He chuckled at how oversleeping caused Ash and Pikachu to meet in the first place, and what had started as a rocky partnership, had turned into a strong friendship, one that some trainer would be jealous about.

The next morning came bright and early, and after a night at Ash's house. His mother was amazingly calm and fine with having Jean Luc becoming a member of the family, of course she treated him like another Ash, reminding him about the same things she would about Ash. Along with cooking another feast for the night in celebration of Ash coming home for a visit, of course she sometimes it seemed looked for any excuse to cook up elaborate meals for people. Cooking was a passion for her. Which she could do a lot more of since Mr. Mime had come into her life helping her with all the chores of the house, which prompted a small feud between Brock and Mr. Mime on who would do the chores around the house that night. This kind of action only made Delia laugh, making everyone around her laugh as well, there had never truly been a day in the house where she was angry, a little depressed or sad at not seeing her baby sure, but no real cross words have come from her, even when she would prick her finger on the rose bush in the backyard.

Of course, there was not one big meal, but two. The second being the breakfast at nine in the morning, the meals went without a hitch, Ash didn't change, but his mom believed him, since he had been on many adventures, she would believe anything, and now… she was looking at her son with teary eyes watering as she looked ready to burst out crying. The time was now nine in the morning, and everyone was on the front porch, Misty was on the walkway at the gate, while Brock was on the steps, with Ash and his mom on the porch while Pikachu was sitting on the porch railing waiting for Ash to finish saying good bye to his mother. Max was just looking on with Brock, feeling sadness and missing his dad and mom as well.

"Oh, Ash." She said her voice unable to hide the sorrow at seeing her son go off again. "Can you at least give me a hug before you go?" She looked rather worried now as well.

"Sure mom." He said and wrapped his arms around her and gave her an Ursaring hug, but at that moment a pink cloud exploded around him and Misty, thankfully Misty was not near anyone, however when the cloud around Ash was clear, a Pikachu wearing his hat was being hugged by an older looking Raichu who blinked at the smoke cleared.

_  
"What happened? I feel…. Ash what happened to you?" _Ash only blinked at looked at his mother.

"_What happened to you mom, you aren't suppose to… the cloud." _Ash looked at Howard who looked like he was still getting use to walking on two feet on not riding on Ash's shoulder

"It would appear so… now I have three to teach… but how am I going to teach a Raichu?" He looked a little worried and not sure of himself.

"_What?" _Delia asked in confusion, _"Teach? You mean… in using electric moves?" _She then gave a Raichu laugh. _"Well, at least now I don't have to pay so much on my electricity bill… of course the power company might not like me using Raichu power in my own home."_

This made everyone laugh, one thing that Delia had always done was to look on the bright side of things.

Howard looked at Brock and pointed at his wrist. Brock only looked blankly until he realized that he was asking for the time.

He looked at the time and blinked. "It is nine o'clock… we have an hour to get to Oak's place." They all breathed out in relief, they would not be late this time around.

The group of Pokémon and Humans all walked to Oak's lab and arrived right as the clocked on Brocks' arm beeped Ten o'clock. They knocked on the door and Oak let them in. He smiled at all of them only to blink in confusion.

"Who is the Raichu?" He was wondering about it now.

Howard Ketchum only looked at the ground. "Mrs. Ketchum Professor." He looked at the ground not seeing the blank look before the look changed.

Oak only smiled. "Well, might as well get the blood samples again… but, do not worry we should get this squared away."

The group left at one that afternoon, they walked towards the exit of the town, and where Ash first started his journey when he was ten, fitting that his new life adventure would start in the same town really, they all looked at each other, Ash and Misty humans and they all laughed as they walked down the road towards a horizon that now looked like a brand new world to all of them, wither it be scary or wonderful, it was yet to be determined.

Meanwhile Professor Oak began to look into his microscope while comparing the blood samples of the group. Delia was sniffing around, and found a Thunderstone, tilting her head she looked at it sideways before sneezing, letting lose a large discharge of Electricity as well as a pink cloud of smoke.


	17. Mismagius Mischeif

Mismagus Michief

Author - Ri2.

Disclaimer: All characters save one are owned by the Pokemon company, or Game Freaks, or Nintendo, or Japan, or 4Kids, or whoever's in charge of that sort of thing. The other character's all mine.

…

"Garchomp, Hyper Beam!" Cynthia commanded.

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!" Ash called out.

"Gyarados, use Hyper Beam too!" Misty ordered.

"Sudowoodo, use Mimic to copy Garchomp and also use Hyper Beam! If that gorgeous Cynthia chose it, it _must _be good!" Brock gushed.

"Blaziken, Overheat!" yelled May.

"Piplup, Bubblebeam!" cried Dawn.

"Garchomp!" The shark-like dragon fired a powerful golden energy beam from her mouth.

"Pi-ka-CHUUUU!" Pikachu lit up with a blinding flash of electricity as he hurled a lightning bolt.

The serpentine Gyarados roared and fired a beam just like Garchomp's from its mouth. The tree-like Sudowoodo flashed briefly, then fired a similar energy beam.

"Blaziken!" The giant flaming chicken Blaziken expelled an incredible burst of flame from its beak.

"Piplupluplupluplup!" The adorable little penguin Piplup spat dozens of explosive bubbles at his target.

"Wahahaha! Haven't you learned by now that you can't beat us, twerps?" Jessie taunted from the cockpit of Team Rocket's latest giant robot. "Wobbuffet, do your thing!"

"Woooooobbuffet!" _I'd better get hazard pay for this…_ moaned Wobbuffet, wearing a football helmet and quite a lot of padding as he popped out of the robot's chest in the grasp of an extendable metal claw, glowing blue as he summoned a Mirror Coat. The half-dozen attacks struck him and were repelled by the Coat, deflected right back at the Pokemon and their trainers, who had to quickly scramble out of the way to keep from getting blown apart by the power of their own special attacks. The energy blasts exploded all over the shrine, shaking it and causing columns to collapse, walls to crumble, and parts of the ceiling to cave in.

May shrieked as a piece of rubble dropped down nearby, almost crushing her. "Yikes! That was a close one!"

"That defense is too powerful! How are we supposed to get through it!?" Max wailed.

"That's the point, you can't!" James boasted. "Our Super Nincada Robo is totally invincible!"

"It had better be, for what we paid for it!" Meowth commented.

It certainly did seem as if Team Rocket's latest robot, which looked like a giant Nincada, was pretty much undefeatable thanks to their creative usage of Wobbuffet as a shield. By deploying the blue blob, the villains were free to use the Super Nincada Robo's drill claws to chip away at the stone clamps holding the Twilight Stone, a mysterious cloudy diamond-shaped purple jewel with what looked like an archaic Pokeball buried in its core, in place. Within moments, the clamps would be broken, and the incompetent thieves would be able to liberate the Twilight Stone, unleashing untold destruction and chaos in the process.

Ah, but perhaps I should back up a bit. You must certainly be wondering how our heroes had reunited with Misty, May, Max, and Cynthia, and wound up in an ancient shrine, trying to stop Team Rocket from stealing an ancient and powerful relic. It all started earlier that day, when the trio of Ash, Brock, and Dawn had arrived at Solaceon Town while continuing their journeys to become a Pokemon master, breeder, and coordinator, respectively. They had been very surprised to run into a few of their old friends there.

Ash and Brock's good friend and former traveling companion Misty, leader of the Cerulean City Gym, had been there, supposedly because she was searching the Sinnoh region for a new Water-type Pokemon to add to her team, but actually because she had gotten fed up with her incompetent (but sexy) sisters' laziness and self-indulgence so ran away (again) to teach them a lesson and also to rejoin Ash, whom she knew she belonged with. Not that she would ever tell him that, of course.

May just happened to be in town, allegedly because she was collecting ribbons so she could compete in the Sinnoh Grand Festival, but also because she was lonely and depressed after utterly failing to win the contests in Johto by herself so came looking for Ash so she could be with him and mooch off him and eat Brock's cooking and put off being independent for a while longer. And Max was there because his parents made him go, much to his annoyance.

The beautiful, intelligent, talented, and all-around cool Cynthia, unsurprisingly, was the only person who was there for any reason other than to be with Ash. (Though Brock had hoped she was there to be with him.) As the Champion of Sinnoh and mythology buff, she had come to Solaceon Town to investigate a legend about some of the nearby ruins. There was a shrine in the woods outside of town that had supposedly been constructed millennia ago to protect the Twilight Stone, an artifact said to be the prison of an incredibly powerful and unimaginably evil Pokemon that had almost destroyed the world eons ago. Team Rocket, who had naturally been eavesdropping since they had no lives and nothing else to do with their time but stalk the 'twerps', had eavesdropped on Cynthia telling the gang the legend of the Stone, and naturally the idiot trio decided to steal the Stone and use the Pokemon inside to further the goals of Team Rocket.

The Rockets beat the good guys to the shrine in their Super Nincada Robo and immediately began trying to break the Stone out of the stone-cold grip of the eerie statue holding it. The heroes had caught up to them and tried to defeat the robot, but Wobbuffet's defensive abilities had made it impossible to make even a scratch on the mecha's hull, and most of their Pokemon had been knocked out by the ricochet caused by the deflected attacks. Not even Cynthia's ludicrously powerful Pokemon team seemed to be able to do any damage! (Although to be fair, they weren't exactly in peak condition. They hadn't been treated at a Pokemon Center in over two weeks, and Cynthia hadn't had the chance to take them to the one in town before the Rockets started attacking the shrine. Also, they were rather tired from their activities over the last few days, such as annihilating several packs of thugs that had attempted to violate their trainer's virtue, putting out a forest fire, defeating the wicked Hunter J, sending a Team Galactic assassination team packing, stopping an avalanche from crushing a defenseless mountain village, putting a rampaging Groudon with a hangover back to sleep, saving an entire alternate dimension from being nullified, and thwarting an alien invasion. After all that and only a little rest in between adventures, it's understandable that they might have a little more difficulty than usual fighting enemies as easily beatable as Team Rocket, whether they were hiding behind Wobbuffet or not.)

However, just because Cynthia's Pokemon weren't in top condition didn't mean her brain wasn't as good as ever. "Ash, Wobbuffet can only deflect one kind of attack at a time, normal or special. If we try hitting it with both at once…"

"Then it'll only be able to counter one of them, and the other'll put it out of commission!" Ash realized.

"Wow, that's a great idea!" Max enthused.

"Cynthia's as beautiful as she is brilliant!" Brock cried, eye-slits turning into hearts…which were abruptly replaced by a look of pain as Croagunk hit him in the back with a Poison Jab, paralyzing him. "Ack! No…why…I wasn't even hitting on her…yet…" Brock protested as the poisonous frog dragged him away, croaking to itself and causing its orange cheeks to bulge and shrink.

"Wow…I have to learn that trick…" muttered an impressed Misty. "Could really come in handy…"

"Doing what?" asked May.

"Oh, all sorts of things…" Misty said, giving a sidelong look at Ash, who didn't notice. Everyone else sweatdropped.

"And she's Ash's girlfriend?" Dawn whispered to May.

May flushed. "She is not!" She hissed back.

Dawn blinked in confusion. "Really? But Brock said she was…and I think your brother did, too…" May's eye twitched, and she glared at Max, who started whistling nonchalantly and trying not to meet her eye.

It was at that point that, with a great crack, the stone hands tightly grasping the Twilight Stone shattered from the steady drilling of the Super Nincada Robo's claws, which immediately stopped spinning and caught the jewel before it could fall to the ground.  
"Mwahahaha! At last, the Stone is ours!" Jessie cackled.

"The boss is gonna love this!" James said happily.

Meowth nodded eagerly. "Yeah, I can just picture it now…he'll be sitting in his office, looking at all da paperwork and reports he's gotten from operatives dat have failed their missions around da world, and he'll say, 'Oh, dis is terrible! How'm I supposed to take over da world with Team Rocket facing setbacks at every possible opportunity?' And den he'll remember the Twilight Stone we sent him and say, 'Aha, dat's it! I'll use the super-powerful and super-evil Pokemon Meowth and his friends sent me to dominate the globe!' And den, once he's conquered the world with da evil Pokemon's power, he'll say, 'For giving me dis extraordinary Pokemon and allowing me to take over da world, I'll give Meowth and friends a continent to rule! One for each of dem, because dey certainly deserve it!'"

"A continent each? Oooh, I call dibs on Europe!" James said eagerly.

"What?! Darn, I wanted Europe," Meowth complained. "Oh well, I guess Asia'll do…"

"And I'll take North America! Everyone knows that's where the real money and fame are!" Jessie said gleefully.

"Oh no, they've got the Stone!" cried Ash in alarm.

"Quick, we have to stop them before they get away with it or accidentally break the seal on that ancient Pokemon!" said Cynthia. "Ash, everybody, do what we were just talking about earlier! Garchomp, use Dragon Rush!" Garchomp growled and lunged towards the Super Nincada Robo, her body surrounded in a pink aura with crackling yellow energy bolts swirling around it.

"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt, again!" ordered Ash. Pikachu nodded and fired off another lightning bolt.

"Gyarados, Dragonbreath!" commanded Misty. The sea serpent hissed and breathed out a tongue of green flame at the robot.  
"Sudowoodo…Headbutt…Croagunk…Poison Sting…" gasped Brock from where he lay twitching on the floor. The fake tree charged towards the robot, while the blue frog spat several glowing purple needles from its mouth.

"Blaziken, use Blaze Kick!" May declared. The fighting chicken leaped into the air and shot towards the mecha with a flying flaming kick.

"Piplup, use Whirlpool!" Dawn cried. The little penguin pointed its head up into the air and spat out an enormous waterspout which it somehow managed to balance on its beak before hurling it towards the robot.

"Man, why can't I have a Pokemon?" Max complained. "I'd have gotten my first by now and started on my journey if my stupid parents hadn't made me go with stupid May on her stupid contest tour to not-so-stupid Sinnoh."

"Ha! That won't do anything! Wobbuffet, use Counter!" Jessie ordered.

"But Jessie, that'll only deflect the Dragon Rush, Headbutt, Poison Sting, and Blaze Kick, the others can still hit us!" cried an alarmed James.

"What?! Er…cancel that, Wobbuffet, use Mirror Coat!" Jessie quickly countermanded.

"But den we'll get hit by Thunderbolt, Blaze Kick, and Whirlpool!" Meowth yelled.

"Gah! Why didn't you say so in the first place?! Wobbuffet, forget that, use Counter…no, Mirror Coat…no, Counter…no, Mirror Coat…no, Counter...no, Mirror Coat…no, uh…Mirror Counter!"

"Jessie, that's not a move," James pointed out.

"Well, it SHOULD BE!" Jessie screamed.

Wobbuffet, very dizzy and confused from Jessie's inability to pick a technique, tried using both at once. Predictably, it failed, and he just wound up using nothing at all, meaning he, and the robot, got hit by the full force of all six super-powerful attacks. There was a tremendous explosion, and the Super Nincada Robo was blasted out through the back wall of the shrine, still clutching the Twilight Stone as it skidded across the ground and smashed through several trees before crashing to a halt against a very large rock, causing severe damage to the mecha's chassis and tearing off two of its legs. "Ow…" moaned the trio.

"Wooobbuffet!" _"Screw this, I quit! I'm going into show business!"_ Wobbuffet wrenched himself out of the broken claw, exchanged his helmet and padding for a wide-brimmed hat and suitcase, and quickly skedaddled out of there. _"Hollywood, here I come!"_

"Come back here, you traitor! Nobody leaves Team Rocket!" Jessie screamed angrily.

"What about Weezing? And Arbok? And Victreebel? And Chimecho? And Cacnea? And Likitung?" James pointed out.

Jessie's face turned as red as her hair. "DON'T CORRECT ME!" She started hitting him repeatedly with a large paper fan. It hurt, a lot.

Meowth sighed. "It's times like dis dat I wonder if I should have stayed a blissfully stupid alley Meowth…who didn't walk on two legs or speak human…yeah, dose were the days…"

"Aaaaaaahhhhh! I thought you-ow! Ooh! Aah!-hated that life," James pointed out as Jessie beat him.

"Huh, oh yeah, dat's a good point," Meowth admitted. "Well den, I guess my life just plain sucks. Dat work for you?"

"I suppose so. AIIIIEEE! Jessie, please no, no more, I beg of you, have mercy!" James wailed pathetically.

"DIE, DIE, DIE!" Jessie shrieked as she throttled James.

The heroes quickly caught up to the wrecked robot, having run out through the gaping hole in the back wall of the shrine and followed the trail of destruction it had left behind to find it. "Okay Pikachu, finish it off with a Volt Tackle!" Ash commanded.

"Wait! Ash, I'm not sure that's a good idea-" started Misty.

"You might damage the Stone!" agreed an alarmed Cynthia.

Ash blinked. "Oh…oops."

Unfortunately, it was too late, Ash had given the order, and Pikachu was already running towards the wrecked robot at maximum speed, practically a yellow blur as an electrical corona flared up around him. He leaped into the air, sailing towards the robot…

When suddenly the Super Nincada Robo's remaining front claw sparked and broke off, falling right into Pikachu's path…and causing him to collide headfirst with the Twilight Stone. He only had a split-second to think, _Oh, fuck_, right before he blacked out due to slamming into the jewel at close to a hundred miles per hour.

And, naturally, this had a detrimental effect on the Stone as well. As everyone watched, eyes wide with horror, a single small crack appeared on the Twilight Stone, a crack which grew larger and branched and spread out in all directions to cover the jewel's entire surface. And then…as everyone waited with bated breath.

The jewel shattered. Or rather, it broke apart with an incredible explosion and a blast of bright purple energy which washed out to engulf them all, and draw them into the darkness of unconsciousness.

Oh, and send Team Rocket blasting off, but that was a given.

…

Several hours later, the group was still unconscious, lying in the smoking forest crater that had been formed by the release of energy caused by the Twilight Stone's destruction. All that remained of the jewel were chips and fragments of broken purple crystal…and an obsidian-black Pokeball with strange glowing runes lying in the center of the pile of shattered gemstone. As a large cloud passed across the sun, momentarily dimming its light and casting a shadow over the clearing, the runes began to glow brighter. With a snap and a flash of light, the ancient device abruptly popped open, releasing its occupant in a burst of energy.

And suddenly, a Mismagius was in the clearing, floating over the remnants of its prison. But this was no ordinary Mismagius, not by a long shot. The witch-like Ghost Pokemon's skin, rather than being purple, made it look as if the Mismagius' body was a gateway into the depths of space. Stars, comets, and even planets could be seen drifting through the stellar void encompassed by the ghost's body. The cloak-like parts of the spirit's ethereal form looked oddly regal and more cape-like than that of a regular Mismagius, with swirling nebulae lining its edges. The three elliptical pearls placed on the ghost's chest glowed very brightly, with what looked like miniature suns contained within their jeweled forms. Her witch's hat had many spiraling points tipped with stars that made it look oddly like a crown. A ring of glyphs writ in flame circled the peak of her witch's hat, creating a burning circlet. She looked out at the world around it with puzzlement in her large blue eyes, understandably confused and slightly groggy, since she had just awoken from a very, very long slumber, so to speak.

The ghost flinched as the cloud overhead drifted away from the sun, allowing its light to shine down on her. She had no fear of the light of day, like many other, weaker Ghost Pokemon, but she was only freshly awoken, and so not quite ready to deal with the sun just yet. So, with a simple spell, she turned day to night, exchanging the brilliant light of day for the velvety darkness of night, a darkness which she was most particularly fond of. After all, it was her element, her dominion. She was Phantasma, Queen of all Ghosts, and had at one point controlled all spirits and creatures of the night, ruling the dark with the spells and enchantments of which only a sorceress supreme was capable of conjuring. Until her betrayal and imprisonment, of course.

But now she was free to dance beneath the light of the moon and the stars and drink in the sweet embrace of the night. _Her_ night, for it truly belonged to her and none other. Why else would the shadows reach towards her, and the moon sparkle down on her, and the cool evening winds swirl about her so? The night was hers to rule, and it was happy to be under her control once again. And all this had come to pass because…

She frowned suddenly. How did her new and long-awaited liberation occur? It was clear that someone must have broken the stone that had imprisoned her, but who or why?

It was then that she noticed the unconscious humans and Pokemon lying scattered about the clearing, and she knew at once that they all must have played some part in her freedom. Extending tendrils of darkness from the voluminous folds of her robe, she probed the minds of the sleepers around her to ascertain the events that had led up to her release.

What she found was not much to her liking, however, and it took all her control not to accidentally tear the poor mortals' minds apart with her fury. She wasn't upset that she'd apparently been imprisoned for almost fifty thousand years, she was immortal and so time meant little to her. She was not particularly bothered by the fact that humans had achieved more dominance over the world than they had in her age, considering how deeply their culture revolved around Pokemon she had no doubt which species was truly in charge. She was not even angered that her palace had fallen into disrepair and most of her homes in the other regions had fallen into disarray and were now occupied by all sorts of layabouts and squatters, her palace could easily be rebuilt and the vagabonds evicted. No, what really got her ire was how the people of this time (those who had her of her at all, that is) seemed to be under the misapprehension that she was evil. She, Phantasma, ruler of Ghosts, nightmares, and the dark, evil! The people who freed her had apparently not even meant to do so, her release was a happy accident that came of them trying to stop some other idiots who were _actually_ evil (and thoroughly incompetent) from freeing her. It made her nonexistent blood boil to think that if these heroes had had their way, she would have remained imprisoned for many more centuries, due to their misguided attempts to keep her 'evil' from spreading out across the land.

Okay, so she was a little mischievous. She was a Ghost-type, that was to be expected. And she had caused all sorts of frights and terrors and horrible mind-scarring nightmares…but hey, her lord Darkrai had done worse, and people still worshipped him…though mainly to keep him _away_ from them. And maybe one or two villages had been driven insane…and some people changed forever by her magic…but still, evil! Honestly! Of all the nerve!

Of course, she knew whose fault it all was. Those blasted self-righteous Psychics and Sages who had sealed her away had smeared her name and spread tales of her 'evil' deeds in the years after her imprisonment. History was always written by the victors, after all. Well, at least she had gotten the last laugh, she had outlived all of her captors…and she bet that nasty little parting curse she had inflicted on them just before she had been locked up had expedited their end as well.

But that was neither here nor there. As upset as she was that her rescuers had not meant to free her, they had been responsible for her liberation, and they were good people at heart. She knew she owed them deeply, and fully intended to reward them for the great service they had rendered unto her.

Her eyes narrowed, and the shadows nearby deepened and darkened, yielding the unconscious forms of Team Rocket. She intended to give them exactly what they deserved as well, for planning to exploit her for evil (and stupid) means. Extending more dark tendrils, she probed their minds, weighing their characters and memories and trying to discover their heart's desires. These desires she would grant, to the best of her very formidable abilities…

Except those of Team Rocket's, whom she intended to cruelly dash and rend beyond repair. She would enjoy that immensely.

Within moments she had taken the measure of her saviors and would-be 'masters' and learned their true characters and their heart's deepest desires. Some of them were touching and noble, others were somewhat selfish and greedy, and still others…were just plain bizarre.

Ash Ketchum, the trainer of the Pokemon who had freed her, wanted to be a Pokemon Master. She wasn't entirely sure what that was, and Ash himself didn't seem to be completely positive either, but he seemed to believe it meant being widely acknowledged as being a great Pokemon trainer with lots of badges and Pokemon who had won many tournaments. She could do something about that.

His Pokemon, on the other hand, had a rather wide assortment of desires. The bird Staravia wanted to evolve into Staraptor, which should be simple enough. The Turtwig desired to be cooler, for he looked up to Ash's other supercool Pokemon Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Charizard, and Sceptile, and did not think himself nearly as awesome and sexy as they, especially since his evolved forms were, in his mind, kind of ugly. She could do something about that as well. The arrogant and fight-hungry Buizel wanted a battle against a truly powerful opponent instead of the 'lame-o's' he felt he was being wasted on all the time. She could certainly grant him that, and put the egotistical hothead in his place in the process. Ash's new Chimchar…wanted to violently kill his former trainer, Paul. This disturbed her at first, until she saw just what kind of person Paul was from everyone else's memories, and decided he most certainly deserved to die.

Pikachu, her true savior, on the other hand…he was a tricky one. She found herself blushing as she looked upon the sleeping mouse. He was a _very_ handsome Pokemon, who seemed to care little for himself and would do everything he could to help his friends. He was selfless, heroic, powerful, compassionate, and seemed to desire nothing more but to keep fighting on with his friends. He was a truly noble individual. For a moment, in an odd and uncharacteristic moment of infatuation, she considered making him into her Consort…

But no, she doubted he would be happy leaving his friends, who would certainly miss him deeply. And alas, it seemed another one of the group's Pokemon was already deeply in love with the Pikachu, and while Phantasma was somewhat jealous, she was not petty enough to let her own desires interfere with true love. Well, unless she was playing matchmaker, which was an entirely different matter altogether. She giggled mischievously as all sorts of diabolical plots on how to couple up the group's many oblivious lovers filtered through her ancient and complex mind.

Putting aside the issue of Pikachu's reward, which would have to be much more considerable than any of the others seeing as how he was the one who physically destroyed her prison in the first place, she moved on to the matter of what to do for Brock and his Pokemon. The young man had many admirable qualities; he was responsible, a good friend, skilled at cooking and caring for other people, excellent at treating and helping Pokemon, an aspiring breeder…and also, sadly, a bit of a lech. Well, okay, maybe that was a bit of an understatement. All the images of naked dancing women in the young man's head almost made Phantasma sick. She immediately decided on what she would give to Brock, something that both fulfilled his desire…sort of…and taught him a lesson, to boot.

The desires of Brock's Pokemon were much less disgusting, and granting most of them would fit in well with what she had in mind for their trainer. Sudowoodo just wanted a girlfriend, Happiny wanted a mother…or father, since she wasn't sure what gender her 'parent' Brock was, and Croagunk wanted…

She burst into malevolent laughter. Oh, that was just too funny. She just knew she was going to enjoy granting these wishes.

The young girl Dawn wanted to be a top Pokemon Coordinator. Phantasma didn't think that would be a difficult wish to grant. Her Piplup, envious of Dawn's rival/friend Kenny's Prinplup, wanted to be an Empoleon. That wouldn't be hard to bring about, either. Dawn's Buneary was the one who was deeply in love with Pikachu and, while Phantasma couldn't help wishing it were otherwise, she knew she was obligated to bring the two together. The hyperactive Pachirisu wanted a mountain of Poffin (something she wasn't sure would be very good for her health, but she'd give it to her anyway), and the monkey Ambipom wanted…Ash Ketchum's hat. And to be ruler of a small village for a year, because she thought she deserved it and had been cheated out of her rightful crown. Phantasma sweatdropped at this, but supposed she could arrange for this to take place.

The young boy Max was a bit more complicated. He either wanted a Pokemon so he could be a trainer, wanted to _be_ a Pokemon, or…wanted to become a baby again so everybody would be forced to take care of him and give him everything he wanted so he didn't have to grow up just yet? She sweatdropped initially, but then realized a way she could fulfill two of these three desires while at the same time granting the wishes of some of the others as well…killing several Spearow with a single Shadow Ball. She giggled nefariously as she plotted out all the details.

Max's sister May wanted…oh dear. Here was a problem. She also wanted to be a top Pokemon Coordinator. But that was what Dawn wanted. And Phantasma couldn't make _both_ of them top Coordinators, could she? Well…perhaps, but from what she saw in both girl's minds, each of them wanted to be _the_ best, not just one of the best. If she was going to grant both their wishes, she was going to have to do something pretty crafty…but that was no big deal, craftiness was something she was good at.

As for May's Pokemon, the majority of them had simple, easily-granted wishes. Blaziken wanted to pursue romance, hopefully with a male who had enough fighting prowess to keep up with and spar with her so she didn't have to keep doing contest battles all the time, Eevee wanted to evolve into something big and strong so everyone stopped treating him like a baby, Munchlax just wanted lots and lots of food, Squirtle wanted more of a backbone, Skitty wanted Pokenip, and Beautifly just wanted to be used more. All those desires would be fairly easy to fulfill, and in Blaziken's case, she'd be granting someone else's in the process. It would be so much more efficient that way.

Misty…she was an interesting character whom Phantasma immediately liked and felt sympathy for. She had two heartfelt desires warring in her heart: one was to become beautiful, because she didn't believe she was; her self-esteem in tatters due to a lifetime of living under three gorgeous sisters that constantly mocked her for being younger, scrawnier, and less attractive than they; while her second desire was…for Ash to love her. Much as Buneary had deep feelings for Pikachu, Misty was deeply in love with Ash, but he didn't notice, being too dense and oblivious to recognize that he liked her that way. Well, Phantasma knew at once she had to do something about that, she would grant both of Misty's desires in one fell swoop. She had to, in the name of love!

Plus, it would be fun to do.

As for Misty's Pokemon…the little Azurill, child of another trainer's Marill, wanted to know who its father was. Phantasma could provide that information. Misty's Gyarados wanted…to eat Misty's sisters without penalty. Um. She'd have to think about that…Psyduck wanted to be a movie star, Politoed wanted to be the leader of a cheerleading squad, and Corsola…didn't seem to want much of anything other than for Psyduck to either die or learn how to swim.

The last of her rescuers was the Pokemon trainer and Sinnoh League Champion Cynthia, whom Phantasma immediately found herself liking. She was strong intelligent, and didn't seem to want much more than to keep living an exciting and adventurous life, and to learn all there was to know about history, mythology, and legendary Pokemon. Her own Pokemon, on the other hand, didn't really want anything more than to get some rest, because they were flat-out exhausted from all the fighting they had done over the last few weeks. They didn't seem to have much in the way of individual desires other than staying with Cynthia and getting some rest and something to eat, Cynthia pretty much took care of all their needs. Well, other than her Spiritomb's desire for freedom so it could unleash mayhem and destruction on the world, Gastrodon's crush on Milotic, Roserade and Milotic's infatuation with Lucario, Lucario's infatuation with Cynthia…_Garchomp's_ infatuation with Cynthia…oh dear. This was certainly a very complex love…hexagon? Polygon? She wasn't sure what kind of shape it was, and even less certain of how to resolve it without breaking a lot of hearts. Maybe she'd just leave it alone…

In any event, she had an idea of what to give Cynthia, too. She intended to set the woman straight on several of her misconceptions on ancient legends (such as her own), for one thing…

And then…there was Team Rocket. She cackled malevolently, the darkness pulsing around her as her eyes fell upon the incompetent trio. She had very, VERY wicked plans for them…but not really for their Pokemon, other than Meowth. They hadn't really done much wrong, in her opinion. In fact…they might actually get something good out of their trainer's torment. Mwehehehehe.

Her eyes glowed and the darkness thickened around her and the sleepers as she began incanting words of power, the glyphs around her head circling faster and faster as she cast her spell. Dark tendrils reached out from her once more to connect her to the trainers and their Pokemon, allowing her to influence them through their dreams…the perfect medium she had chosen to grant their wishes.

She giggled mischievously. This was going to be _so_ much fun…

…

"Ash, honey, it's time to get up!"

Ash groaned and rolled over in bed, away from his mother, pulling his pillow over his head. "Mmm…ten more minutes, mom…"

Delia Ketchum frowned. "You don't have ten more minutes, young man. Today's your big day!"

"…Zzzzz…" Ash snored.

Delia frowned. "Hmmph! Oh well, I suppose I have no choice. Pikachu, you know what to do!"

"Yes, I certainly do. KACHU!" Pikachu hit Ash with a lightning bolt, causing him to leap out of bed wailing and convulsing and shaking all over as electricity coursed through his body.

"Gyayayayayayaya…ugh…" Ash groaned, smoking and twitching slightly. "I've gotta get a better alarm clock…."

"You can do that later, Ash, you need to get up and going, now! Everyone's waiting for you at the stadium!" Delia said, hands on her hips.

Ash stared at her blankly. "…Stadium?"

"Yes, today's the day of your big battle! You know, the absolute biggest battle of your entire life to prove you're ready to be a Pokemon Master?" Delia reminded him.

Ash's eyes bulged out of their sockets. "What?! Gyah! Why didn't you say so!" He lunged to his feet, raced to his dresser, and frantically started whipping out clothes. "Why didn't you wake me up sooner?!"

"We tried to," Pikachu said flatly. "You yelled at us to go away and threw pillows and knickknacks at us until we retreated."

Ash, head sticking out of the wrong end of a T-shirt, looked around and noticed how much messier than usual his bedroom was. "Oh…uh, sorry…"

"No time for that now, you need to get going!" Delia said, helping Ash dress himself in three seconds flat, like any good mother can. "Since there's absolutely no time left for breakfast, you'll have to make do with this." She shoved a stack of pancakes right down Ash's mouth, nearly choking him. As Pikachu helpfully whacked him on the back several times to help him swallow the food, Delia handed him his hat and some clean underwear. "Don't forget this, dear!"

"Moooom!" Ash cried, totally embarrassed.

"This is why I'm glad I don't have to wear clothes…" Pikachu muttered, shaking his head in bemusement.

"Hey, Pikachu, how come I can understand what you're saying?" a confused Ash asked his partner Pokemon.

"Because this is a dream, of course," Pikachu explained.

Ash blinked. "It is?"

"Certainly, why else would you not be wearing pants?"

"Huh?" Ash looked down and cried out in horror when he realized he was, indeed, not wearing pants.

"That's what the underwear's for, dear," Delia reminded him. "Oh, and these." She handed Ash his usual jeans, which he quickly put on. Then he took them off to put on his underwear, and then put the pants back on, looking very embarrassed all the while. "There's no time to go downstairs, so you'll have to use the window," she said, pushing Ash towards the open window.

"Huh? Wait, that doesn't make any sense!" Ash protested.

"Of course not dear, it's a dream," Delia said, shoving Ash out the window and causing him to fall several hundred stories towards the ground far below. "Have fun, dear!"

Ash landed with a thud on a bench in a locker room, very dazed and confused. "What took you so long?" asked Pikachu, who was sitting right next to him.

"Huh? What…what the…how'd you get here before me?!" asked a very bewildered Ash.

"Oh, I took the elevator," Pikachu said nonchalantly, pointing to one in the corner. "Ready for the big battle?"

Ash blinked a few times. "Um, I guess so…ack! Wait, where're my other Pokemon?! Which ones am I using?!"

"We're right here," said Ash's Sinnoh Pokemon, who were right behind him.

"Oh…sorry," said an embarrassed Ash. "Okay, we have Pikachu, Staraptor…wait, Staravia, when did you evolve?"

"Just now," said the large and impressive black and white bird.

"Oh, okay. Buizel, Chimchar…"

"Ha, this is gonna be awesome!" Buizel boasted, punching at the air. "I'm gonna get to fight the greatest opponent of all time, and prove that I am the MAN! Er, MON! Ha, no more lame Contest battles, Team Rocket members, or wussy Gym Leader Pokemon, now we're fighting for the TITLE! This is gonna be so sweeeeeet!"

"Um, yeah, I hope so…" Chimchar said timidly. "Um…A-Ash…what's gonna happen to me i-if I lose?"

Ash blinked in puzzlement. "Um…nothing, we'll just fix you up at the Pokemon Center, get something to eat, train some more, and try harder next time, why?"

"No reason…just checking…" the fire monkey said, relaxing a little.

"Hey wait, where's Turtwig?" Ash asked, realizing someone was missing.

"Over there," said Pikachu, pointing to Turtwig, who was in the middle of a circle made up of Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Charizard, and Sceptile. "Your uber-cool Pokemon are inducting him into their ranks."

"Oh," said Ash. "Wait, then why aren't you there with them?"

Pikachu snorted and preened himself. "What, me? Please, I outrank all of them by a factor of a hundred. Well, okay, maybe not _that_ much…"

"We of the Brotherhood of Badass hereby invite the neophyte Turtwig to join our number," Charizard said, holding the sacred Book of Badass in his claws. He flipped it open to an empty page and held it out to the small grassy turtle. "Do you solemnly swear to uphold the tenements of the sacred Book of Badass and live the lifestyle of the ultra-cool, shedding all traces of lameness and frailty to become a badass sexy bastard like the rest of us handsome bastards?"

"I so swear," Turtwig said solemnly, placing one of his paws on the page and leaving a footprint on its surface.

Charizard lifted the book into the air, displaying Turtwig's footprint to the heavens. "Then by the ultra-sexy power invested in me by all the really cool legendaries, I, Charizard, leader of the Brotherhood of Badass, hereby induct you into our ranks! A new legend of coolness has been born, and his name is Turtwig!"

"Here, here!" the other three cool Pokemon cheered.

"Now, brothers, adorn our newest member with the accoutrements of his newfound coolness," Charizard told the other Pokemon.

"I, Brother Squirtle, bestow upon you these sacred shades," Squirtle said, placing a pair of sunglasses over Turtwig's eyes. "They're not mine, but they're still badass. And sacred and stuff."

"And I, Brother Sceptile, bestow upon you this sacred twig, which I just plucked off a tree this morning," Sceptile said, sticking a twig into Turtwig's mouth. There was still a leaf attached to it.

"Cool--YEEEOOOUUUCHHH!" Turtwig screamed, spitting out his new twig as Bulbasaur pressed a red-hot brand onto his backside, burning the image of a skull and crossbones onto his hiney.

"And I, Brother Bulbasaur, bestow upon you this sacred branding, to show to the world that you're bad to the bone," Bulbasaur said, tossing the brand away and dumping a bucket of water onto Turtwig to cool him off.

"Owowowowow…wait, why don't the rest of you guys have a brand like that?!" Turtwig moaned.

"It's a new rule," Sceptile said.

"Plus, it's the only thing I could think of to give you," Bulbasaur grumbled. "Since I don't _need_ items to look cool." Sceptile and Squirtle glared at him.

"And finally, I bestow upon you this sacred flame, so that you may burn with manliness and coolness and stuff and show all the world how awesome you are," Charizard said, raising a torch.

"Wait, but I'm a Grass-type-" Turtwig began to protest just before Charizard lowered the torch and lit the turtle's head twig on fire. He immediately burst into flames. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH ARCEUS, IT BUUUUURRRRNNNNNSSS!"

Charizard sweatdropped as Turtwig ran away, screaming, "MY HEAD IS ON FIRE MY HEAD IS ON FIRE MY HEAD IS ON FIIIIRRRREEEE!"

"Uh, oops," Charizard said sheepishly as the rest of the brotherhood glared at him. "Guess I should have thought that part through a little more…"

Ash's other Pokemon sweatdropped. "Oy…uh, don't worry, he'll be okay," Pikachu reassured Ash as Squirtle and Sceptile grabbed a fire extinguisher and sprayed it all over Turtwig, putting out the rogue flame and covering him in foam.

"Is it too late to get different Pokemon for the team I'm using in the big fight?" Ash asked desperately. "Or can I at least use one of _those_ guys instead?"

"Sorry Ash, no can do, I'm not actually here, I'm just a figment of your imagination," Charizard said apologetically. "Only the Sinnoh guys and Pikachu are really here in your dream, since they're dreaming it too. Me? I'm in the Charicific Valley having sex with Charla."

"And I'm having sex with Bayleef on Oak's Ranch," Sceptile spoke up.

"And I'm boning May's Bulbasaur in the same place," said Bulbasaur.

"And I'm…uh…damn, I need to get a girlfriend," Squirtle grumbled.

"We're all rooting for you, though, even though we're not really real," Charizard said cheerfully, punching Ash in the arm and nearly breaking it.

"Ow…thanks…I think…" said a thoroughly confused Ash.

"Ash, my boy, are you ready for your greatest challenge yet?" Professor Oak asked, walking into the room.

"Professor Oak! What're you doing here?" asked a surprised Ash.

"Why, I'm here to see you battle, of course, just as I've come to see you fight in all your other big League finals! With your mother," the famous scientist pointed out. "After all, it's not like I don't have anything more important to be doing, back in my lab…anyway, I'm here to send you off with one of my patented Pokemon poems!"

"Yay?" Ash said uncertaintly.

"Ahem. 'Winners come and go, legends fade and are forgot, nothing lasts for long,'" the professor recited.

"Uh, was that supposed to fill me with confidence?" Ash asked.

"Hmm? No, I was just pointing out that fame is fleeting. Oh yes, all your old rivals came with me, they wanted to say something to you," Oak said as some young men entered the room.

"Ash, I just wanted to tell you that you're the best. You've come farther than I ever could, and all I can say is: congrats. You've done well and I know that whatever happens next, you deserve to win," Gary, the Professor's grandson told Ash, shaking his hand.

"Yeah, what he said," Richie commented, patting Ash on the back.

"Wow…thanks, guys," Ash said, rather touched.

Next was Harrison, who had defeated Ash in the Silver Conference, looking uncomfortable. "Ash, I…have a confession to make." He sighed and closed his eyes. "I cheated in our match."

Ash and all his Pokemon gasped. "WHAT?!" he screamed in disbelief.

"I gave Blaziken super-hot chili before our match so his fire would be really stoked…if it weren't for that, your Charizard would have won," Harrison told Ash.

"Aha! I knew it! I _knew_ it!" Charizard roared triumphantly in the background.

"I'm really sorry, Ash. This has been weighing on me ever since that day. If I hadn't immediately lost to some other trainer in the next round, I would have given you the prize I might've won," Harrison lamented. "I hope you can forgive me for the victory I stole from you, the victory that was rightfully yours."

Ash narrowed his eyes angrily. "If it weren't for the fact that you just told me you CHEATED and kept me from being in the Top 4 of the Silver Conference, I might've. Charizard, kill!"

"With pleasure!" Charizard roared, descending on the screaming Harrison like a flaming angel of death.

"Uh, Ash…" an uneasy Pikachu said as Charizard proceeded to burn Harrison alive.

"What? It's just a dream, so I can get away with something like that, can't I?" Ash pointed out.

"Huh? Oh…yeah, I guess that's a good point," Pikachu admitted.

"Uh, then maybe I shouldn't mention that I also cheated in our match and gave my Meowth steroids…" a nervous Tyson said, edging towards the door.

"WHAT?!" yelled Pikachu, cheeks sparking and electricity flaring up all around him. "Ash…"

"Kill!" Ash ordered, pointing at Tyson, who screamed and ran but couldn't escape Pikachu's lethal electrocution. The enraged mouse poured volt after volt into the cheater's body, causing him to shriek and convulse in agony as his clothes and hair burst into flame until he finally died, a blackened and sizzling form.

Sceptile nodded to himself. "Now it all makes sense…there's no way a Meowth could ever have beaten Pikachu! He had to have been cheating!" He shrugged. "Or at least that's what you and Pikachu think deep down, anyway, which is why this is occurring in your dream. Same with Harrison and Charizard. Just an interesting psychological tidbit."

The purple-haired Paul was next. "Ash, I know I may be a jerk, but I want you to know I never cheated. So-"

"DIIIIIIIEEEE!" Chimchar, eyes red with foam and spittle flecking from his lips shrieked as he pounced on Paul and proceeded to light him on fire and crap all over him with flaming poo and chew his face off.

"Oh my, why are you letting him get away with that? He said he never cheated," said an alarmed Professor Oak. "Or even abused his Pokemon!"

Ash shrugged. "Yeah, but he was an asshole who treated his Pokemon like tools and threw them away when they didn't do as well as he wanted. And nobody likes him anyway. And besides, this is a dream, right? Not like that's the real Paul."

"Er, dream Paul, right…" Oak said nervously, his eyes shifting about. "Anyway, you should probably get going now, your battle will be starting any moment."

"Right! Thanks, Professor! Let's go, everyone!" Ash said, running out of the room. A still-sparking Pikachu, Staraptor, Buizel, a damp Turtwig, and a Chimchar with blood dripping from his fangs and fingers ran after him.

Professor Oak chuckled as he began stuffing the three corpses of Ash's rivals into lockers. "Such a nice boy, isn't he Delia?"

"Oh yes, the best!" said Ash's mother, who was helping to clean up the mess.

As Ash and his team were running down the corridors of the stadium, they turned a corner and abruptly ran into Dawn and May and their teams. (Not literally, thankfully.) "Hey, May, Dawn, what're you guys doing here?" asked a surprised Ash. "And why're you wearing those costumes?"

"Oh, we're both here to enter some big Contest tournament that's conveniently being held in the same building as your Pokemon Master bout to determine who the world's greatest Pokemon Coordinator is," said May, who was wearing a dress that made her look like a Roselia.

"And we're wearing these costumes because the judges said we had to," said Dawn, glancing down at her own outfit, which made her look like a Buneary. "You don't think this is too skimpy, do you?"

Ash shrugged, being too oblivious (as always) to notice anything like that. "It's fine, I guess. If you like that kind of thing."

Blaziken tapped her trainer on the shoulder. "May, we have to hurry, or we'll be late and can't compete. And I want to get this over with quickly, I have a rendezvous with a blind date at six."

"Will there be food?" asked Munchlax.

"Yes, but you can't have any," Blaziken said sternly. "It's a date, which means just two people, not three."

"Okay," Munchlax said with a shrug. "Could use something to eat before the big fight, though." He glanced at Eevee, who squealed in alarm and quickly hid behind May's leg.

"I actually feel ready for this!" Squirtle said bravely. "I feel like I have a whole new backbone, and drank a big steaming vat of courage! Bring our opponents on, I'll take em' all on, with one arm tied behind my back!"

"That's the spirit!" Buizel said, admiring Squirtle's newfound courage. "Hey kid, wanna go one-on-one after I'm through trashing whatever loser we have to fight to be recognized as Pokemon Masters?"

"Sure, why not? I feel like I can take on the whole world!" Squirtle boasted, puffing out his chest.

May glanced at the turtle anxiously. "I'm not sure that's a good idea…"

"Who cares! At least I'm finally being used again, after being dumped at Petalburg Gym for months on end!" Beautifly squeaked happily. "Isn't it great, Skitty?" Skitty was too busy brainlessly chasing her tail to reply. So was Pachirisu, for that matter. Chasing her own tail, that is, not Skitty's.

"I feel ready for this too! Especially now that I've evolved into an all-powerful Empoleon!" Dawn's starter Pokemon, who was no longer a scrawny Piplup, boasted as he flexed his flippers.

"Yeah…how'd that happen, anyway?" Dawn asked Empoleon, who just shrugged.

Buneary nibbled on her fluff a little, pulled it up to hide how red her face was, and tiptoed over to Pikachu. "Um…Pikachu…you'll wish us lots of luck, right?"

"Huh? Um…yeah, sure…of course…" Pikachu said awkwardly, edging away from the bunny a little. Buneary's rather obvious affection for him made him more than a little nervous at times. "I'm sure you guys will do great."

Buneary turned her back to Pikachu for a moment so he couldn't see how giddily happy his comment made her. When she regained some control over herself, she turned back around and moved a little closer to Pikachu. "Th-thank you…and…and I know you'll do great, too…after all, you're…you're the greatest Pokemon in the world…" Much to both their surprise, she leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Pikachu started, and his cheek sparked up, and both of them yelped and jumped away from each other. "O-oh gosh…I'm sorry," Pikachu stammered, a horrified look on his face as Buneary cringed away from him, face buried in her fur. "Did-did I hurt you? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean…you just surprised me, and I…"

"N-no, it's okay," Buneary said quickly, looking back up at him. "I shouldn't have been so forward, I just…I…" She swallowed, licked her lips, and looked away. "Actually, I…I kind of liked it…" Pikachu stared at her, eyes wide. She blushed and looked back at him. Their eyes met, and they stared silently at each other for a moment.

Until Buizel started obnoxiously singing, "Pikachu has a girrrlfriend, Pikachu has a girrrlfriend, Pikachu has a YEEEAAAAGGGGHHH!" He was cut off when Pikachu, without even looking, blasted him with several hundred megawatts of electricity. However, even though the otter/weasel thing was shut up, he had reminded the two Pokemon that they were in public, and they both blushed heavily and quickly retreated to the safety of their own trainers, who blinked and gave each other dumbfounded looks, unsure what to make of all this.

In that moment of confused silence, Dawn's Ambipom, who had at one point been Ash's, chose her moment to strike. "Yoink!" In one swift move, she had yanked Ash's hat off his head and ran down the hallway with it on her head, chittering and hooting excitedly. "At last, I shall be QUEEN! Hoohoohahahaha!"

Ash's eyes widened. "Hey…HEY! COME BACK HERE WITH MY HAT!"

"And just come back here, we have a contest to perform!" Dawn added.

"We don't have time to go after her, the competition starts any minute! Dawn, we'll just have to go on without her!" Empoleon said to his trainer, urgently pulling her away.

"But…but…oh, darn!" Dawn sighed, giving in. "Ash, I'm really sorry about this, I promise I'll get you a new hat, but…I have to go!" She and her Pokemon quickly ran off down the hall.

"I sort of have to go too, Ash. Goodbye, and good luck! Sorry about your hat," May said apologetically, as she and her Pokemon rushed off as well.

"Oh damn…Ash, we need to get moving, too!" Pikachu said, tugging on his trainer's hand.

"But-but my HAT!" Ash protested, trying to run down the hall after Ambipom. "I can't go out there without a hat, everyone will see my hat hair and compare me to Goku!"

"Nah, Goku's more of a man than you are," Buizel said derisively.

"Doesn't Goku get bossed around by his wife all the time?" Turtwig asked Buizel. "Just like Ash gets bossed around by Misty?"

Ash's face turned red. "SHE'S NOT-"

"Ash, now's not the time for denial, we have to go, or you'll automatically be disqualified!" Pikachu yelled.

"But my HAT!" Ash cried.

"Oh, here you go, honey," Delia said, handing Ash his very first hat, the one that he had gotten in the mail and that Mankey had stolen at one point, which led to Ash capturing a Primeape. "This one should do. I think you look better in it, anyway."

"Huh? Oh, thanks, Mom! You're a real lifesaver!" said a relieved Ash, putting his hat on, marveling at how familiar and _right _it felt sitting on his head. "Hey, wait, what're you doing here?"

Delia smiled. "Oh, I'm just a handy plot device to keep the story running. Now you'd better get going, it's time for your big match!"

Ash nodded. "Right, thanks Mom! Come on Pikachu, everyone, let's go!" They hurriedly ran off.

"Such a nice boy," Delia said cheerfully.

After spending a few more minutes running down identical corridors, Ash and his team ran out into the open, finding themselves on an enormous Pokemon battlefield sitting in the middle of an absolutely gigantic stadium, the biggest they had ever been in. The seats were packed with thousands of people, many of whom a surprised Ash thought he recognized as having been people he had met over his many travels. "Whoa…"

"Pretty big, huh?" Pikachu agreed.

"The perfect audience to see me in action!" Buizel said eagerly.

Slowly, almost reverently, Ash stepped into the trainer's box on the end of the field closest to him. As he did, the thousands of spectators immediately began shouting something all at once, and after a few moments of deafness Ash realized that it was his name. "ASH! ASH! ASH! ASH! ASH! ASH! ASH! ASH!" Some people tore their shirts off, revealing that they had painted the letters of his name on their chest. Other people were holding up pictures of his face and waving them proudly in the air.

However, Ash wasn't the only one being cheered for. An equal, if not greater, number of fans on the other side of the stadium were screaming, "PIKACHU! PIKACHU! PIKACHU! PIKACHU!" Dozens of people had painted themselves yellow with red cheeks, and had actual Pikachus with them. A whole block of spectators had small panels that they flipped over which combined to form a giant portrait of Pikachu that loomed down over everyone.

Ash frowned at Pikachu. "What? I can't help it if I'm popular," Pikachu said, somewhat embarrassed.

"That should be my face up there," Buizel fumed.

"Why don't they mention the rest of us? We're here too…" asked Turtwig, disappointed that his initiation into the Brotherhood of Badass hadn't appeared to increase his popularity at all. Staraptor shrugged. Chimchar licked Paul's blood off his fur.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!" the announcer cried. "WELCOME TO THE ULTIMATE CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLE TO DETERMINE WHO WILL BE POKEMON MASTER OF THE WORLD!" The crowd cheered very loudly. "IN ONE CORNER, WE HAVE OUR CHALLENGER, ASH KETCHUM OF PALLET TOWN AND HIS POKEMON TEAM, INCLUDING THE AWESOME AND EVER-LOVABLE PIKACHU!"

"WHOOO! YAAAAAYYYY!" the crowd cheered, as Ash and Pikachu waved.

"You can do it, honey!" Delia called out from her seat next to Professor Oak somewhere in the stands.

"PIKACHU, HAVE MY BABY!" some people yelled, causing Pikachu to flinch and stare at them in disbelief.

"BOOOO! YOU STINK!" yelled the spectators seated in a rather large and exclusive stadium box directly opposite from Ash. Ash was startled to realize that all the people in that box were, in fact, Pokemon. And not just any Pokemon, but legendary Pokemon!

"What the…what're they doing here?! And why aren't they cheering for me?!" Ash demanded.

Pikachu shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe they favor the defending champion."

"Oh. Wait, who _is_ the defending champion?" Ash asked.

Pikachu paused for a moment, a puzzled look on his face. "You know…that's a good question…"

"AND IN THE OTHER CORNER, THE REIGNING CHAMPION, THE CREATOR OF ALL LIFE AND UNQUESTIONABLE RULER OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE…ARCEUUUUUUUS!"

The majority of the spectators abruptly stopped cheering, stunned looks on their faces.The Legendary Pokemon burst into raucous applause. Ash was just confused. "Arceus? A Pokemon?! But Pokemon can't be Pokemon Masters!"

"Uh, Mewtwo?" Pikachu pointed out.

Ash blinked. "Oh, right. Wait, who is this Arceus, anyway? I've never heard of him…"

Pikachu facefaulted. "Ash, first off, you need to pay attention to the world around you more. Second…I think we're completely and thoroughly fucked."

There was a rumble of thunder as storm clouds gathered in the skies above, blotting out the sun. The clouds swirled ominously, causing darkness to fall over the stadium as everyone watched with fear and trepidation. Lightning bolts shot down, crashing down all over the battlefield and causing minor explosions that hurled turf and bits of rock and dirt everywhere, some of it hitting Ash in the face. Without warning, the center of the clouds irised open, allowing a beam of pure light to shine through from above and touch down on side of the field opposite from Ash. And then, as everyone watched in amazement, a single figure began to descend from the clouds, riding down the beam of light to the stadium below.

Trumpets played. Angels sang. (Well, actually, it was just Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Shaymin, Cresselia, Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf, and, oddly enough, Heatran.) Dialga and Palkia roared. The figure touched down gracefully, and the beam of light faded, though the clouds remained, as did an odd, ethereal radiance emanating from the just-arrived Pokemon, one Ash had never seen before. It was an equine being with a white body, a gray underside, and four pointed feet tipped with golden hooves. It had long mane extending back from its head and its oddly nondescript face, featureless save for two great green eyes. A golden cross-like wheel was attached to the Pokemon's waistline, changing colors rapidly. Even though it was only ten feet tall and all the way on the other side of the stadium, Ash could not help but feel as if it was right in front of him, and bigger than the entire universe. A chill ran down his spine. "Wh-what _is_ that thing?!"

"God," Pikachu said flatly.

"Oh crap…i-is this blasphemy? Are we going to be sentenced to damnation or something for going against Him!? I don't wanna go to Hell!" Turtwig wailed, panicking.

"Wow! This is an even bigger battle than I ever imagined! I get to fight the master and creator of all existence! Now I can REALLY show my skills!" Buizel boasted foolishly.

Ash quickly whipped out his Pokedex and pointed it at Arceus, wanting to know more. His handy device beeped and said, "Arceus, the Alpha Pokemon. It is described in mythology as the Pokemon that shaped the universe with its 1000 arms and was said to be born before the universe existed. Legend says that it created all life, matter, and reality itself, so is the Ultimate being and Godhead. Anyone who even thinks of fighting it or trying to capture it, therefore, is a complete and utter idiot. Nice knowing you."

"Hey!" Ash yelled angrily. "I am not an idiot! And He doesn't have 1000 arms; I only see four legs…" His Pokemon facefaulted.

"Wooooo! Go Arceus! Crush that puny human!" Groudon, seated in an extra-large seat with a baseball hat that had holders and straws for beer cans feeding directly into his mouth and a giant foam hand proclaiming Arceus as number one, yelled enthusiastically.

"Ar-ce-us! Ar-ce-us! Ar-ce-us!" Kyogre bellowed fanatically, her big blue body tattooed to say "I LOVE ARCEUS."

"Eat his soul! And if You don't, can I have it?" Giratina asked hopefully.

"Defend the honor of legendary Pokemon!" Ho-Oh cried.

"Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!" screeched Zapdos, Moltres, and Articuno.

Regigas, Regirock, Regice, and Registeel, flashed something on their many eyes that essentially translated to, 'Annihilate the tiny fleshling.'

"Looks like we'll be getting some company soon," the ghost of Latios said to the ghost of Lucario, both of whom were wearing 'Arceus is the Alpha and Omega!' T-shirts.

Lucario nodded. "Indeed. Can you pass the popcorn?" Latios did so.

"Sorry Ash…but I'm gonna have to root for Arceus instead of you. He's family, after all. Really sorry," Latias said apologetically. She snuggled up against Rayquaza, who was waving a large pennant with Arceus' face on it.

"Yeah, me too…" Lugia sighed. "Sorry. You're still my Chosen One, though. No hard feelings?"

The cute Legends, (and Heatran) waved around pompoms and did a cheer, led by Mew, who was wearing a T-shirt with a big heart and a picture of her and Arceus' faces in it. "Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate? Which universe did He create? Of all the gods, only He is Great! Oh yeah, go Arceus, Arceus, the Origin of All! Hooray!"

"Bah, he's not so great…" Mewtwo grumbled, which resulted in him getting booed and pelted by everyone else's popcorn, hotdogs, soda, beer, and other snacks.

"I say, isn't this a marvelous dream, dearest?" Darkrai, wearing a monocle, top hat, tuxedo, and bow tie asked his beloved.

"Indeed, it is," Cresselia, wearing an elegant gown, pearls, and opera glasses agreed. "But Darkrai…why are we speaking in British accents?"

"Because it's fun! And you can get away with saying ridiculous things like pip-pip and cheerio without anyone looking at you funny!" Darkrai said cheerfully, ignoring the weird looks everyone else was giving him.

Cresselia sweatdropped. "Ah, yes…of course…"

"Young one, are you prepared to battle?" Arceus asked Ash. His voice wasn't telepathic, yet Ash could have sworn he heard it in his head…as well as right beside his ears…and just about everywhere else, too.

"Um, I guess so…" asked Ash, starting to get a little nervous.

"THE WINNER OF THIS BATTLE WILL RECEIVE THIS COMMEMORATIVE BADGE," the announcer declared as one of the giant electronic screens all over the stadium turned on to display the image of a small red heptagonal badge with a golden center and a big P in the middle. "AND BE RECOGNIZED AROUND THE WORLD AS BEING A POKEMON MASTER!" The crowd cheered, and the Legendaries booed.

"Ash, are you sure this is a good idea?" Pikachu asked, getting a little anxious. "I'm sure there's gotta be a better way to become a Pokemon Master."

"No, I'm not afraid," Ash lied, staring down Arceus and trying not to tremble. "I can do this! We can win! Everybody's counting on me, so there's no way I can lose!"

"Try not to lose so badly, dear!" Delia called to Ash, causing him to facefault. "You'll only humiliate yourself!"

"Great…glad to see everyone believes in me…" Ash said sarcastically. He glanced around. "Where are all my other friends, anyway? Where's Brock, and Max, and Misty, and Dawn, and May?"

"They're all in their own dreams," Pikachu explained. "Dawn and May are having a contest, remember? And Max is probably watching them or doing something else. I don't really know what everyone else is dreaming…"

"What, we couldn't get Tracey here to sit nearby and offer some encouragement? Or maybe even Todd?!" Ash asked, getting frustrated.

Pikachu shrugged. "I guess not. Sorry."

Ash sighed in exasperation. "Glad to see my friends know where their priorities are…"

Pikachu glanced around. "Well…Politoed's over there. Does that count?"

"Huh?" Ash looked where Pikachu was pointing.

Misty's Politoed and Togetic (as well as Ash's Donphan) were dancing around with fans and kimonos, leading Gary's old cheerleading squad in a cheer for Ash. "Go go Ash, give 'em a bash, let's get started on a monster mash! Oo-rah, sis-boom-bah, put up a fight so we can go rah-rah-rah! Woo, Ash! You've gotten in, though you probably won't win, but that's okay, to us you'll never go in the garbage bin! Goooooo Ash!"

Ash sweatdropped. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"At least somebody's cheering for you," Pikachu said.

"They're acting like I'm going to lose!" Ash protested.

"Well, that's because you probably are…" Pikachu admitted reluctantly.

Ash glared at him. "Don't you mean 'we'? You're fighting to."

Pikachu's ears sagged. "Oh great. Thanks for reminding me…"

"This is gonna be the greatest battle ever!" Buizel cheered.

"We're so fucked," whimpered Turtwig. "We're all gonna die."

"Well, I'd rather go out with you guys than a jerk like Paul, anyway," Chimchar said. "Speaking of which, if this _is _the end, I'm glad I got to kill him before it was too late."

"NOW, LET THE BATTLE BEGIN IN 3…2…1…GOOOOOOOOOOO!"

And then the most important Pokemon battle in Ash's life began.

…

Meanwhile, May, Dawn, and both their teams had made it to the contest stage, a platform resembling a Pokemon battlefield in the center of an open stadium not too different from the one Ash was currently in. The hundreds of spectators in the stands cheered wildly as the girls and their Pokemon entered the arena, much to the two coordinators' surprise. "Wow…they really like us, don't they?" asked an awestruck Dawn.

"I guess so," said May, with a big smile on her face as she waved at the crowd. "I guess they're expecting us to put on a great show!"

"Go May! We know you'll do great!" May's mother, Caroline, called from the stands.

"Yes, you'll be the best, honey! All of us from Petalburg are rooting for you!" May's dad, the famous and super-cool Petalburg Gym Leader Norman, added.

"WOOO! GO, NORMAN'S DAUGHTER! WIN, WIN, WIN!" cheered the rather large membership of Norman's fan club, arrayed around the Gym Leader's seat.

"MARRY ME, NORMAN'S DAUGHTER, MARRY ME!" One crazy fan screamed.

May sweatdropped. "My name is May, not Norman's daughter…"

Max, sitting beside his parents, looked bored. "Big whoop, yet another big coordinator battle. This'd be, what, the fourth championship thing May's been in? Bet she'll lose it just like she did the last three."

"Max, that's no way to talk about your sister!" Caroline scolded Max.

"Yeah, well it's the truth," Max said bluntly. "I see no reason to watch her fail again, I lost interest in Pokemon Coordination after watching her do like a million contests and watch the tapes from the ones she's been in over and over and over again, supposedly to do better, but really because she wants to watch her 'boyfriend' Drew in action. I'd rather go watch Ash's big battle over in the arena next door, even if _he's_ pretty much lost more big championships than May, at least it was more interesting. And his Pokemon were cooler. Especially his Pikachu. I wish I were a Pikachu, they're so cool."

"That they are, son, that they are," Norman agreed. "Why, I'd get a Pikachu myself, if it didn't conflict with my Gym theme." There was a pause. "Oh, and those were very nasty things to say about your sister. You should be ashamed of yourself. No ice cream or dessert for a week, young man."

"Oh no, whatever will I do," Max said sarcastically. "No ice cream or dessert? The horror…"

Dawn's mother was there too, sitting in a different area, and was cheering for her daughter. "Dawn, this is it, the big time, what you've been working so hard for! Whatever happens here today, you'll always be my winner!" Johanna called to Dawn.

"Mine too! Even though you've only gotten one ribbon, despite being in like half a dozen different contests…" Johanna's Glameow muttered to herself.

As the two Coordinators and their Pokemon approached the stage, a pretty woman standing nearby, in front of three people sitting behind a set of podiums, waltzed out onto the field and waved to the crowd. "Hello, everyone! Welcome, coordinators and spectators alike, to the Supreme Festival! Here, today, the greatest Pokemon Coordinator in the world will be chosen from among the ranks of all the brave men and women who have struggled so hard to make it to this point! I'm Marian, your Emcee, here to announce and comment on the day's events to all our viewers!" As the crowd cheered, Marian turned around and gestured to the three people behind her. "With me are our three judges, the Pokemon contest director, Mr. Contesta; the head of the Pokemon fanclub, Mr. Sukizo, and our very own Nurse Joy!"

"Hello everyone, I think we're going to have a wonderful round of battles today!" said Mr. Contesto.

"Remarkable!" said Mr. Sukizo.

"This should be a contest to remember!" Nurse Joy said cheerfully.

"And now, I'd like you all to welcome our top Coordinators!" Marian said, turning to May and Dawn…and hesitating, a look of confusion on her face. "Wait. Why are there only two of you?"

May and Dawn blinked. "Um…why shouldn't there be?" asked May.

"We were just told to dress up in costumes and come over here, we didn't know anything about any other people," said a puzzled Dawn.

"But…there's supposed to be twenty-four of you! Twenty-four of the world's top Coordinators, competing against each other for the grand title of the world's best! Where're the other twenty-two?!" Marian demanded. It was at that point someone ran over to her from the sidelines, handed her something, then ran back. She quickly glanced at it, did a double-take, and read it carefully. Then she sighed and looked up. "Everyone, I'm afraid we have a bit of a dilemma. It seems that the bus transporting the other Coordinators here from their hotel drove into a space warp and is now lost in some other dimension."

"WHAT?!" cried a horrified Dawn, May, the judges, and just about everyone else.

In said other dimension…

"Well, this bites," Drew grumbled, looking out of the window of the bus at the psychedelic colors, random Unown, and the occasional Deoxys floating by. "I'm trapped in another dimension, missed out on a chance to beat May again…" He turned around and glared at the person sitting next to him. "And I'm stuck here with you."

"Well, excuse me for being here, I'm not particularly happy about this either," Harley huffed, crossing his arms and pouting. "I was looking forward to beating May into the ground, too! Oh well, at least this gives us some quality time together." Drew's eyes widened in horror, and he edged as far away from Harley as he possibly could.

"So, Kenny, right?" the red-headed Zoey asked Kenny, Dawn's childhood friend and semi-rival. "You know Dawn too?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Who do you think she likes more, me or you?" Zoey asked. Kenny blinked and stared at her.

Back at the stadium…

"How're we supposed to compete if everyone else is gone?!" May demanded of Marian.

Marian frowned thoughtfully. "Well…that's a good question. Judges, what do you think? Should we just postpone this until our other contestants find their way home…which, realistically, might never happen…or should we try and go forward anyway, even with just two contestants?"

"Hmm…well, we went to all the trouble of organizing this, it would be a shame to end it just because we're missing a few contestants. Why not just have these two fine young ladies duke it out to the title? It would have come to two people fighting for it anyway, this way we can skip straight to the finals without all the other preliminaries!" suggested Mr. Contesta.

"That's a remarkable idea!" said Mr. Sukizu.

"Well, all right, why not?" said Nurse Joy amiably.

"There you have it, ladies gentlemen! These two contestants, May from Petalburg and Dawn from Twinleaf, will fight each other for the title of world's greatest Coordinator!" Marian declared, causing the crowd to cheer. "The winner of this contest will receive a special commemorative ribbon…" One of the giant television screens displayed a magnificent ribbon with a golden heart-shaped badge with sparkling wings, a crown, and a glittering diamond set in the middle with beautiful rainbow-colored ribbons artfully growing out from and around it. "As well as a lifetime supply of Poffin and Pokeblock!" The screen changed to show twin mountains of Pokeblock and Poffin. Munchlax and Pachirisu started drooling. "Not to mention a complete set of Pokemon evolutionary items!" The screen changed to show a box with a plush interior holding a Fire Stone, Water Stone, Thunderstone, Leaf Stone, Moon Stone, Sun Stone, Dawn Stone, Shiny Stone, Dusk Stone, Oval Stone, Protector, Magmarizer, Electrizer, Metal Coat, King's Rock, Dragon Scale, DeapSeaScale, DeepSeaTooth, Reaper Cloth, Upgrade, and Dubious Disc.

Eevee gasped. "Wow! If I get one of those, then I can finally evolve and stop being treated like a baby all the time!"

"Wow…that's a lot of prizes…" said an amazed Dawn.

"Yeah, but you're gonna have to beat me, a much more experienced Coordinator, to get them! Think you can do it?" May taunted Dawn.

"Uh…" Dawn uneasily glanced at her team, which was indeed less experienced and also smaller than May's. "I don't know…but I'm certainly going to try!"

"Not just try, we're gonna WIN!" Empoleon boasted, pointing a flipper in Blaziken's face.

She smacked it away. "We'll see about that, marching-boy. We're gonna rip through you guys and still have time for me to get to my blind date! "

"And then I'll evolve!" declared Eevee.

"And I'll eat!" Munchlax said happily.

"And I'll actually get to do something for a change!" Beautifly said ecstatically.

"And I'm going to catch my tail!" said Skitty. She noticed her tail wagging out of the corner of her eye, squealed, and started chasing it. Everyone sweatdropped.

"I have to win…" Buneary murmured to herself. "So I can show Pikachu that I can fight and take care of myself, just like he can!"

"And I'll fight, too," Pachirisu squeaked. "So I can have all that Poffin! It'll give me enough juice to run around the world! Fifty times! Maybe more!"

Dawn gave the squirrel a wary look. "Will we ever see you again, after you've eaten all that candy?"

"Probably not. I think her heart would explode at some point, from all the energy she'll get…she's already way too hyperactive as is," commented Empoleon. "Even worse than that Skitty."

May sweatdropped, glancing at her Skitty. "Seriously?"

Dawn nodded morosely. "Yeah, at least your Skitty doesn't randomly blast people with electricity when it gets too excited…which is pretty much all the time."

"Yeah, like right now!" Pachirisu cried enthusiastically, blasting everyone with blue electricity. "Because I'm soooooooo stoked about this contest, and the Poffin I'm going to get! I'm just a bundle of nerves! Weeee!" She started running in circles, discharging even more electricity and zapping Marian and the judges.

"Remarkable!" a blackened and sizzling Mr. Sukizo said brightly.

Marian, her hair smoking and pretty much ruined, coughed and weakly raised her microphone. "Koff Let's just get this show on the road, before anything else happens…" The microphone exploded in her face, covering it with soot. Her eye twitched. "Dammit…"

…

Brock blinked, looking around in confusion. "Huh? What am I doing here? Why am I wearing a tuxedo? Why am I standing at the altar in a church?" He gapsed. "Ohmigosh…I must be getting MARRIED!"

"That's right, Brock, you are," Brock's father Flint, also wearing a tuxedo, said proudly to his son. "Congratulations!"

"I can't believe my little boy is finally getting married…" Brock's mother, Lola, sitting with the rest of Brock's family in the front row of the groom's side of the chapel sobbed.

"Yay, I'm going to get a new mommy!" Happiny said happily, clapping her hands together.

"Wow, this is so cool! I never thought my big brother would actually get married! I figured he's be a bachelor (and virgin) forever!" commented Brock's brother, Forrest.

"Same here…all of us figured Brock'd never find a girlfriend," commented Geodude.

"Yeah, considering how socially awkward he is, plus how he always loses his mind and goes gaga whenever he sees a pretty woman," added Steelix.

"And since he always gets cut off by Misty…" started Crobat.

"Or Max," said Forretress.

"Or Croagunk," said Ludicolo. "Oh, and occasionally Bonsly."

"He's very rarely gotten the chance to finish flirting with someone," said Marshtomp. "Probably for the best, otherwise Brock'd have a ton of sexual harassment suits on his hands."

"Definitely," all of Brock's Pokemon agreed.

Brock sweatdropped. "Wow, glad to see how much my Pokemon really care…"

"Don't worry, Brocko, alla that's behind you now!" said Sudowoodo, smacking Brock on the back and almost knocking him over. "Just look, now that you're getting married, all the other women that've turned you down or ignored you desperately want you! You've become a hot commodity!"

He gestured with an arm to a window, through which Brock could see Soledad, Cheryl, Sabrina, Erika, Janine, Whitney, Jasmine, Clair, Roxanne, Flannery, Winona, Gardenia, Greta, Lucy, Prima, Achiko, Madison, Alexa, Arielle, Arisa, Bailey, Calista, Cassandra, Chigusa, Queen Eileen, some electrician babe, Latoya AKA Gligargirl, Grace, Hinata, Iya, Izuna, Janet, Julie, Kakuri, Katrina, the Kimono Sisters, Lokoko, Lara Laramie, Lilian, Lily, Lisa, that other Lisa, Luka, Madeline, Mariah, Melanie, Michelle, Momoko, Rita, Nicole, Neesha, that Princess from the Mirage Kingdom, Pietra, Rochelle, Bianca, Samantha, Shinobu, Stella, Sunrisa, Suzie, Tammy, Temaku, Trinity, Trixie, Tsuguyo, Wilhemina, Yoko, Honoka, Rhonda, Florinda, Olesia, Miki, Dr. Anna, Andrea, Krystal, Naomi, Dr. Abby, Millie, Professor Sarina, Katie, Rhoda, her sister Rhonda, Yuma, Clara, Halie, Oralie, Theresa, Forsythia, Haru, Natsu, every Officer Jenny, every Nurse Joy, and…well…pretty much every other girl Brock has ever fell in love with, which is quite a lot. "WAAAAHHH! BROCK, WE LOVE YOU! SAY IT ISN'T SO!" they screamed as they pressed against the police line (noticeably absent of Jennies) that was trying to keep them away from the church.

"Whoa," said the amazed Brock.

"I know, impressive, isn't it?" said Flint. "But they can't have you! That ship has sailed, because now, on this day, you're about to be united with your one true love in holy matrimony!"

"Uh…" Brock glanced at the bride's side of the chapel and noticed there was absolutely nobody sitting there. "Just who _am_ I getting married to, today?"

Flint laughed and smacked his son on the back, almost knocking him over. "Oh, you kidder! You know who it is! There's nobody else it could possibly be!"

A terrified expression formed on Brock's face. "Oh no…don't tell me it's….PROFESSOR IVY!"

"No, she's dead," said Sudowoodo.

"Oh." Brock sighed in relief. "But then who…"

He was interrupted when the Bridal March began playing on the nearby pipe organ. "No more time for that, Brock, your future wife is coming!" Flint said, patting Brock on the shoulder. "Good luck!"

"Yeah…and if I'm lucky, I might be having a wedding of my own soon too. Apparently your luck with women is rubbing off on me, I have a blind date at six, right after the wedding reception is over!" He winked at Brock and elbowed his trainer. "If I play my cards right, _neither_ of us will be sleeping alone tonight, if you get what I mean, heheheheheh!"

"Uh, yeah, I think I do…" Brock said. He'd probably be more enthusiastic about the prospect of getting laid if he had any idea just who he was _doing _it with. He honestly had no idea who he was supposed to be getting married to today! It made him wonder how the heck he had agreed to have a wedding if he didn't even know who his bride was in the first place…

The big doors at the other end of the church opened, and the bride entered, wearing a beautiful white dress with a veil going down over her face to hide what she looked like. This made Brock even more nervous. Now, not only did he not know who his future wife was, he didn't even know if she was pretty or not! For all he knew, she could be butt-ugly! Or even worse, she could be shudders _Jessie…_

"Here she comes," Sudowoodo whispered, giving Brock a good squeeze on the shoulder…despite not having any hands. "Time for your big moment! It's showtime!"

"Yay?" Brock said uncertainly.

…

Elsewhere…

The hazy air of the casino was thick with tension as two archenemies stared each other down from opposite sides of a table, poker faces on and cards held tightly before them. One of them was an evil mastermind, about to unleash his ultimate plan, while his foe…was possibly the only man who could save the world. The hero's lover and the archfiend's minions watched with trepidation from the sidelines as the two nemeses faced off, well aware that the results of this final hand could very well decide the fate of the free world.

Slowly, a cold smirk formed on Giovanni's face as he stroked the Persian in his lap with a free hand. "Well, Agent 054…this has been a long and exciting game, but I'm afraid that it must come, at last, to an end. Your luck has finally run out!" His smirk widened into a grin as he lay the cards in his hand onto the table. "Behold! I use the Spell Card Fusion Evolution to combine my three Blue Eyes White Dragonites to create the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragonite! Then I play another Spell Card, Megamorphosis, which boosts my monster's life points to 8000, more than enough to crush your Pokegyptian God Cards!"

Giovanni's minions oohed and awed at their boss's move, while the hero's girlfriend squealed in fright, certain that her lover was doomed. Agent 054, however, retained the same vacant expression on his face he usually had, not in the least bit worried. "Duck. Psyduck duck." He laid a few more cards down, and then made a shocking play.

The minions gasped in astonishment, and Giovanni sharply inhaled, a horrified look on his face. "No! It can't be!"

"Wigglytuff!" the hero's girlfriend cried joyfully, bouncing up and down with glee.

"No way! By sacrificing Rayquaza the Sky Dragon and Winged Groudon of Ra, Agent 054's increased Kyogre the Tormentor's power to infinite levels!" cried one of the minions.

"More than enough to defeat the boss's Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragonite!" added another minion.

Giovanni's face turned red with rage, and his Persian yowled in alarm as the crime boss abruptly rose to his feet and knocked all the cards off the table with a sweep of his hand. "Curse you, Spy Duck! You may have beaten me at my own game, but I shall still win in the end! Attack him, my ninja minions!"

Instantly, about a dozen ninja henchmen and ninja Pokemon (Venomoth, Golbat, Ninjask, Shedinja, Scyther, Scizor, etc) appeared out of nowhere to surround Psyduck while Giovanni and his goons quickly escaped through a back entrance, dragging Wigglytuff with them. "WIGGLYTUFFTUFF!" Wigglytuff shrieked in alarm as she was carried off, reaching desperately for Psyduck as she vanished through the door.

Psyduck's eyes narrowed slightly. Then they went vacant again and he held his head, tilting it to the side and going, "Psy-ai-ai-ai-ai!" A laugh track played. Then the ninjas attacked.

…

"Hello, and welcome back to _Who's Your Daddy_, the world's premiere show for helping illegitimate children reunite with the parents they never knew!" said a Kadabra wearing a cheesy suit and an even cheesier toupee. "I'm your host, Chet Dabra, and now that that lovely commercial break is over, we can introduce our next guest, Azurill from Cerulean City!" A spotlight switched on and shone down on the nervous and slightly scared Azurill, sitting in a chair on a stage before a live audience, who all clapped and hooted and cheered as they saw her. "Azurill, tell us why you're here today!"

"Umm…" Azurill fidgeted nervously. "W-well, I don't know who my daddy is. My mommy had me, and I was given to the Gym Leader Misty as a gift by her trainer Tracey Sketchit, but I have no idea who my daddy is. And…and I really wanna know…" She sniffed and started tearing up. "B-because all of Misty's sister's Pokemon pick on me for not knowing who my daddy is, and call me names, and…and they're really meaaaaannn!" She burst into tears, and the audience made noises of sympathy.

"Well, that's very sad, Azurill…but you have nothing to worry about! Today, we're going to find out who your father is!" The audience cheered. "Now, let's introduce our first guest, your mother, Tracey's Marill!"

Another spotlight switched on, revealing a Marill, sitting in a chair several feet away from Azurill's. (To avoid lawsuits and vicious on-stage fights. Not that those didn't happen anyway.) "Huh? What am I doing here?" asked the confused Marill.

Azurill gasped. "Mommy?"

Marill blinked. "Honey? What's going on?"

"Ms. Tracey's Marill, we've brought you here today to answer a very important question…who is your daughter's father?" Chet asked Marill, thrusting a microphone into her face.

Marill started. "W-well…"

"Come on Mommy, tell me! You've never said before, but you _have_ to now!" Azurill insisted.

Marill flushed. "Well…you see…I'm sorry honey, but the reason I've never told you before is because…I honestly don't know!" There were several gasps from the audience, and Azurill.

"What's this? You don't know?!" asked Chet, feigning surprise.

"No…you see…" Marill flushed. "I've never told anyone before, but…the night I conceived Azurill was the night of Ash Ketchum's return from the Johto League, and we had a big party at Professor Oak's lab to celebrate him making it into the Top 8 of the Silver Conference. I…had a little too much to drink, and, well…I slept with a few Pokemon. One of them must be Azurill's father, but…I honestly don't know which one! I was drunk, and there were so many of them…" She gave her daughter an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, honey…I never wanted you to know, because it shamed me so and I didn't want you to feel the same way…I'm really sorry!"

"…Mommy! How could you!" Azurill squeaked loudly. "I thought you were a fine, upstanding Pokemon, not a…not a woman of loose morals!" The audience gasped, and Marill cringed.

"Whuh-oh, looks like we've got a little familial dispute here! Good thing their seats are far apart…" Chet muttered. "But this still leaves the question of who is Azurill's father! Fortunately, our team of forensic experts, reconstructionists, and snoops, through painstaking and invasive research and investigation, have managed to identify the three people Marill slept with on the night of the party who could potentially be Azurill's father, and brought them here today! Now, while we wait for the DNA testing we're doing through samples we took without anyone noticing to come back and tell us without a doubt who the father us, let's introduce Azurill to the three men who may or may not be her daddy!"

"Wait, why can't you just wait until you get positive results on the DNA test then introduce us to the _one_ man who's my baby's father?!" asked an alarmed Marill.

"Because this way will eat up time and give us more ratings. Now! Introducing father candidate number 1…Ash's Totodile!" A spotlight turned on, illuminating a chair on the opposite side of the stage which a rather nervous Totodile was sitting in. For once, he was not jumping or dancing for joy.

"Um…hi…" he said quietly.

Marill gasped. "You?! Wait…yes…I remember now…you _were_ there, weren't you? And you…" She gasped again. "You gave me a drink! Did you-"

"No!" Totodile protested. "I-I didn't slip you anything! You had already drank a little, and…well…I didn't know that a little more would put you, you know, over the edge."

Marill frowned. "Then…you didn't take advantage of me?"

Totodile smiled faintly. "Ha! If anything, _you_ took advantage of me…you were coming onto me, very forcefully, might I add. But, well…I didn't mind terribly…I've always had a sort of soft spot for Marills…" He blushed and looked away, embarrassed. Marill fidgeted, also looking embarrassed.

"You know, I always thought it might be you," Azurill commented, bouncing happily on the ball of her tail.

"Don't be so sure it is, though," Chet said warningly. "Remember, we still have two more candidates, and those DNA tests haven't come back yet…now, let me introduce the second potential father, Ash's Bulbasaur!"

A second spotlight came on, illuminating a chair right next to Totodile's. Ash's Bulbasaur was sitting in it, looking anxious. The audience gasped, as did Totodile, Marill, and Azurill. "You?!" Totodile cried in astonishment. "But you're in a relationship with May's Bulbasaur!"

"Uh, actually, I didn't meet her until later…" Bulbasaur pointed out.

Totodile blinked. "Oh, right."

"You and I…we…" a shocked Marill inquired.

Bulbasaur fidgeted. "Well, the thing is…I've…always admired you…ever since we met and fought alongside each other for a while with our trainers in the Orange Islands. And then, when Ash left me behind at Professor Oak's to keep the peace among the Pokemon there, I had a chance to get to know you better, and…" He flushed. "Well…I kinda started to like you. So, at the party, I took a chance and started talking to you. And…you seemed pretty receptive. Moreso than I thought. Than you started coming on to me. Then…well…you know, one thing led to another and we slept together." He looked at the ground. "I…didn't know you'd been drinking a lot. I guess I had had a little too much too, and…my head wasn't on straight. I'm really sorry."

"…I'm sorry, too," Marill said, not sure how to feel about this.

"Man, May's Bulbasaur is gonna be pissed if she finds out you already have a kid with someone else," Totodile said half-jokingly.

"You're right, I am!" May's Bulbasaur yelled from the audience.

"Oooohhh," the spectators went, anticipating a fight.

Ash's Bulbasaur went very pale. "Oh, shit…"

"Well, looks like we have some relationship strife, folks!" Chet said, looking way too amused about all this. "But let's forget about that for now since we only have a couple minutes left before the next break, and introduce our final candidate…" A third spotlight switched on, revealing…Manaphy?!

The audience gasped, while everyone else just gave the Prince of the Sea confused looks. "Uh…who the hell is that guy?" asked a bewildered Bulbasaur.

"I'm Manaphy, Prince of the Sea!" Manaphy declared proudly. They stared at him blankly. "You know, the Legendary Water Pokemon!" They stared at him blankly.

"Don't you mean Kyogre?" asked a confused Totodile.

"No, no... That'd be Lugia," an equally confused Bulbasaur noted.

"What?! No, that's…ugh, never mind," Manaphy grunted in exasperation.

"I don't remember sleeping with you…" said a puzzled Marill.

"Uh, no, you probably wouldn't…" Manaphy said uneasily, eyes darting about.

"So, Manaphy! Care to explain how you could have slept with Marill since you weren't even _born_ up until a few months ago?" Chet asked, shoving the microphone in Manaphy's face.

"Wait, _what?!_" Marill shrieked.

"How the…the hell? How's that work?!" cried Bulbasaur.

"If they did sleep together, wouldn't that be statutory rape?" asked Totodile.

"No, that only counts for humans," said Bulbasaur.

"Oh, okay."

"I'm confused…" complained Azurill.

Manaphy fidgeted. "Uh, well, you see…yeah, I was just born a few months ago. Or reincarnated, or whatever. But how I got to that party…well, kind of a funny story. You see, it just so happens that a few weeks ago, the Legendaries were having a party for something…somebody's five billionth birthday, I think…and I got a little sloshed and started hitting on Celebi. But she didn't take to that very well, and…kinda sorta threw me into a time warp. And I popped out at Professor Oak's party. And I was pissed and all, but figured, hey, a party's a party, so I tried to mingle, ran into Marill, who was _really_ sloshed, so much she barely knew up from down, and had just gotten done with both Totodile and Bulbasaur, and she was willing, so…"

"You took _advantage_ of me?!" shrieked Marill.

"Um. I guess that's one way of looking at it…" Manaphy said quietly. The audience booed and would have thrown garbage at him if they hadn't been forced to leave all throwable objects at the door when coming in to see the show. Another precaution against lawsuits.

"You _scum!_" Bulbasaur snarled angrily.

"That's just wrong!" said Totodile. "I mean, you were even younger than _Marill_ when you did that!"

"My species matures pretty fast…" Manaphy said, by way of explanation. "And I was drunk, and so was she, and we were both willing sexually active Pokemon, so…"

"You're disgusting," Marill growled.

"I _really_ hope he's not my daddy…" Azurill whimpered.

"And on that discordant note, it's time to go to commercial!" the Kadabra said cheerfully. "When we get back, the results of the DNA test will be revealed, and we'll finally learn who Azurill's father is! No way you'll wanna miss _that_ bit of family drama! So, stay tuned for the exciting conclusion of this episode of _Who's Your Daddy!"_

…

Misty Waterflower was not having a good day.

Her Psyduck had run off to be a famous movie star. Her Azurill was on television trying to learn who her father was. Her Politoed was off forming a big cheerleading group. Her best friend and crush, Ash Ketchum, was having some big match to see if he was the world's greatest Pokemon Master and _he_ _hadn't invited her_, Brock was having a wedding and he _also_ hadn't invited her, she was stuck at Cerulean Gym having to fight wannabe trainers all day…

And her sisters were being as huge a pain as ever.

Misty slammed a tub of cleaning supplies on the kitchen table, grabbing the attention of her three gorgeous and completely brainless sisters, Daisy (who had been chatting on the phone with someone while doing her nails), Violet (who had been chatting on the phone while doing her nails _and_ reading a stupid fashion magazine), and Lily (who had at one point been chatting on the phone while doing her nails, combing her hair, and reading a stupid fashion magazine, but had stopped at some point and started staring at the fluorescent lights in the ceiling for the last several minutes.) "Daisy. Why have you been giving out free badges again, despite my telling you repeatedly that it's a very, very bad thing to do? Violet. Why haven't you fed OR cleaned your own Pokemon, like I've told you you need to several times? Lily. Why haven't you cleaned the pool, and why the HELL are you just staring at the ceiling?!"

Daisy pouted. "Like, I always feel so bad for the little things. I mean, to get here most of them had to come through that icky dark dank Mt. Moon or walk through forests full of disgusting yucky gross Bug Pokemon, and then a lot of them just get creamed by your super-tough Water Pokemon and have to go to the Pokemon Center, so why not give them a break and let them get an easy Badge without fighting for a change?"

"I was _going_ to do it, but then I got a call from my girlfriend, who had, like, this totally wicked gossip to tell me about her sister's second cousin's hairdresser's ex-husband's girlfriend's boyfriend's mother's niece's pet's sitter's doctor's Pokemon which I just HAD to listen to, and then I, like, realized my nails needed a touch-up, and there was this totally scandalous article in Lives of the Elite and Famous about how Lorelei's been cheating on Lance with Bruno and Agatha's shagging up with Koga, and…I dunno…I sort of, like, lost track of time," said Violet with a carefree shrug.

"And I was going to do it, but I was talking to one of my girlfriends, and fixing my hair, and trimming my nails, and reading a mind-blowing article on hairdressing, when I looked up at the ceiling and thought, whoa, how do those fluorescent thingies work? They're so long and bright and waaaayyy differenter than regular lightbulbs, and they're so shiny and stuff, so I just started looking at them and wondering and…uh…" Lily trailed off as she stared back up at the lights again, hypnotized by their luminance. She started drooling a little.

Misty's eye twitched. She was very, very close to losing it and murdering her sisters. "Okay, first of all…Daisy, if you keep giving out free badges, the Pokemon League will shut us down for not following proper procedure. That's something I've told you, like, a dozen times now. Violet, taking care of your Pokemon is much more important than all that other stuff. And Lily…STOP STARING AT THE CEILING LIGHTS!"

Lily started and almost fell out of her chair. "Huh? What?"

"The three of you can't keep acting like this!" Misty yelled at her sisters. "You're grown women! It's not right for you to pile all the work you don't want to do on me!"

Daisy yawned. "Don't have such a Miltank, Misty…"

"Yeah, why should we waste our time doing that stuff when you're perfectly willing to do it for us?" asked Violet. "If we did all that work, we wouldn't look nearly as pretty, we'd be as plain and dull-looking as, well, you." Misty's teeth ground together.

"And besides, there's nothing wrong with this arrangement. Like, remember those three absolutely drop-dead gorgeous sisters whom everybody loved and adored, and they had a younger and less prettier sister they hid from public who did all the chores and housework and stuff? They all lived happily ever after, didn't they?" Lily said.

Misty stared at her clearly brain-dead sister in incredulity for a moment. "…That's a fairy tale, Lily. Plus, Cinderella, the younger and less pretty sister, wound up marrying a handsome prince, while the three beautiful sisters eventually starved to death because they were too brainless and lazy to feed themselves."

There was a long, uncomfortable pause. "Oh…um…" Lily fumbled, not sure what else to say.

"Well…that could never happen to us! I mean, we're way too pretty to, like, just starve, I'm sure we could find somebody to mooch off of or something," Violet said quickly. "I mean, everyone loves us, we're the Sensational Waterflower Sisters."

"Yeah, that's why they always come to our shows and stuff!" Daisy agreed.

"Shows…right…speaking of which, when's the last time you three put one on?" Misty asked coolly.

The sisters paused. Gave each other uncertain looks. "Umm…"

Misty nodded slowly. "Yeah, that's what I thought. You haven't put on any shows lately because it's been easier for you to just coast along, do nothing, and let ME do all the work!"

"Well, why _should_ we work?" Violet argued. "I mean, it'd just, like, totally make us ugly and plain-looking." They shuddered at that thought. "It's way easier to just let you do all the work. Or, if it's _such_ a big deal," She rolled her eyes to show that she clearly thought Misty was making much ado out of nothing. "We can just clear out, find some rich boyfriends, get married, and live the rest of our lives as gorgeous trophy wives who never have to do anything but look pretty for the camera and spend lots and lots of money on fantastic and totally expensive outfits, beauty products, and other extravagant junk."

Misty gave her sisters a disgusting look. "…And that's all you want out of your lives? To be trophy wives?! That's your entire ambition?!"

The sisters looked at each other for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, sounds right," said Lily.

"Pretty sure that's what we want," agreed Daisy.

"It's certainly easier than doing work and getting a job or whatever sort of dull lifestyle you'll wind up with, little sister. I mean, look! You already have tons of calluses from all that 'hands-on, physical labor' you do," said Violet.

"And you'll get even more from all the drudgery and housework and stuff you're gonna do when you get older and (maybe) get married," added Lily. While Misty was extremely insulted by this, she found herself oddly impressed that Lily even knew a complex word like 'drudgery'.

"And then you'll get crow's feet."

"And, like, split ends! And gray hair!"

"Oh, and don't forget the wrinkles. Ewww." All three idiot siblings made faces at that concept.

Misty raised an eyebrow. "And what makes you think _you_ won't get those, too? Every woman does, it's a process of something called 'aging' which nobody is immune to."

Daisy shrugged carelessly. "Yeah, but we're gonna be rich enough to afford plastic surgery and, like, you're not. So we'll stay young and pretty-looking forever while you just get old and ugly and bitter because you're not as beautiful as we are and nobody will love you."

Misty's temper was rising. She only barely managed to reel it in. "You're assuming two things. One is that you'll actually manage to land your dream marriages of being rich indolent trophy wives. The others is that _I'll_ never get married. What makes you think I'm never going to get a husband?!"

The sisters gave Misty pitying stares. "How many invitations to go on dates have you received this week?" Violet asked.

Misty started. "Wh-what? What does that have to do with anything-"

"We've had ten," said Lily.

"Each," added Daisy.

"Well, actually, I got twelve, but yeah. And how many did _you_ get, little sister?" Violet asked Misty.

Misty's face paled. "Well…maybe one, but, what does that have to do with-"

"I rest my case," Violet said.

"We're not going to have any trouble getting married," Daisy said happily.

"But you?" said Lily. "Well…good luck, little sis, like, you'll need it."

And then they started laughing. It was an ugly, stupid, brainless laugh, the kind of mindless tittering only utter ditzes like Misty's sisters could pull off. She had heard it all too often in recent times, and hearing it now, on top of everything else that was wrong that day, caused her to decide that she had finally, finally, had enough. "You know what? Fuck you three. Beauty's only skin deep, and I bet that your new boyfriends or husbands or whatever will only have to spend a _day_ with you to realize how disgusting and shallow and totally, totally _empty_ you are inside. I, on the other hand, actually have a chance of more than a one-night stand since there's more to me than just a pretty face, even if it's not quite as pretty as you three. I wish everyone could see what the three of you are _really_ like inside, because then you might have to actually work for a living and a boyfriend just like the rest of us!" Misty felt particular relish in saying that last bit. It was her second-biggest desire regarding her sisters, the first biggest being that Gyarados ate them.

So, imagine her surprise when all three of her sisters abruptly transformed into fish Pokemon. Lily was suddenly a large and vaguely humanoid Relicanth, flopping on the floor while her mouth gaped open stupidly and her eyes stared vacantly at the world, Violet was a big and ugly Remoraid, writhing out of her clothes and trying to clamp onto something to protect her with her oversized jaws so that she wouldn't have to fend for herself, and Daisy was a wriggling, slimy Barboach with long and unfeminine whiskers. Six disgusting blobs also lay on the floor, and it took Misty a moment to realize that they were her sisters' silicone implants, apparently rejected from their bodies due to their abrupt piscine transformation. Certainly there was no room on those fishy bodies for oversized breasts!

Misty stared at them incredulously, her jaw dropping. "What the…no way…" She abruptly started laughing. "Ha! Shows you three right! About time…huh?" Her body started feeling very strange. "What…ugh…what's happening…"

It was at that point that her skin peeled off and her hair fell off, and she started screaming. Flesh and fragments of skin flaked and shredded off her body, falling to the floor like large bits of dandruff and leaving hard, ugly tan scales with random brown spots in their place. Her hair abruptly fell out, leaving her completely bald, as a trapezoidal blue dorsal fin abruptly sprouted from her back, tearing open her shirt. Her hands and feet turned blue and fanned out, becoming more like fins as well and ripping open her shoes. However, they were ragged, tattered fins, and so almost useless (much like what was left of her clothing). She gasped in pain as gill slits cut into her waist, causing her to scream in agony as her internal organs violently shifted about so that her lungs were now of a different shape and position and drawing air from her abdomen rather than her mouth. Her nose and teeth shriveled into nothing (along with her breasts), and her eyes recessed into their sockets, becoming larger and plainer and losing their lovely blue hue. Her mouth widened and her lips swelled up. All in all, she had transformed into a rather unattractive Feebas Pokemorph.

She started screaming, while her sisters laughed on the floor. At least, she thought they were laughing. They might have been gasping, she couldn't really tell, and at the moment didn't really care, what with having abruptly transformed into an absolutely hideous creature. "I-I don't understand…why am I…what did I do to deserve this?! Is this what I get for wishing bad things on other people! If so, I'm sorry!" She started weeping big, fishy tears.

However, Misty had forgotten something very important. Namely, what Feebas evolved into…as she was soon about to discover firsthand, when her body started glowing with a radiant white light. "Huh? What…what's happening _now?!"_ Her sisters gawked. Well, it's not like they could do anything else, anyway.

Misty's evolution was swift, and the changes almost immediate. Her rough tan and brown scales shed off and were replaced by sleek, smooth yellow skin covering her upper body and sparkling blue and pink scales on her lower. A long tail, also covered in sparkling blue and pink scales, grew from her rear, ending in four large overlapping scales at the tip spread out to look like a fan. Her feet were now fins that looked similar. Her tattered blue fin-hands were replaced by immaculate, almost frictionless yellow fingers that tapered into mildly sharp points. Her bust grew back, much to her relief, and became a bit…larger…around the size of her sisters' (when they were human), if not larger, and was all the better for being completely natural. A pointed crest grew from the top of her head as her hair grew back, now a little pinker and much more softer and luxuriant than ever before, draping down the sides of her head in two fin-like masses almost reaching to her knees. Her eyes grew smaller and popped back out into her face as they regained their blue iris, a blue much more vivid and jewel-like than ever before. Long, thin, arcing antenna sprouted from her eyebrows and arced over her head to form a vaguely heart-like shape. Her lower face grew out slightly in the form of a petite snout and muzzle, giving her a vaguely snakelike mouth. She was breathtakingly beautiful, and a calming aura was exuded by her statuesque form. "I have to go now," she said to her sisters, a sort of farewell. "There's somewhere I need to be."

She left the room. Gyarados slithered into the kitchen a few minutes later and ate the three large fish flopping about helplessly on the floor, though he nearly gagged. They were much bitterer than he had expected.

…

Jessie was absolutely miserable.

It had seemed, at first, as if she was on top of the world. She was free of Team Rocket, and had finally lost those idiot hangers-on James and Meowth, and become a wealthy and famous superstar and supermodel, appearing in the best fashion shows, movies, and television specials worldwide. She had legions of fans around the world, almost limitless money, flawless beauty, and dozens of suitors fawning over her and obeying her every whim and wish. Her life had been absolutely perfect.

And then…IT had happened. The accident. She had been testing a new beauty lotion on her skin, but found out, too late, that she was terribly allergic to the ingredients and had an unbelievably violent reaction to it. Her entire genetic structure had mutated in response to the toxic substance! And now…she was hideous. Absolutely, completely, and totally UGLY.

Her skin had peeled off, only to be replaced with thick, ugly dark purple and black scales and spines. Her legs had withered away and melded together to create a long and twisted tail bristling with angular scales and spines and horn. Her fingers had fused together, leaving her with three awkward, bulky claws per hand, each digit ending in a long, thick, serrated nail. Her beautiful hair had fallen out completely, leaving her totally bald as her head was covered in ugly dark scales with horns and spikes sprouting everywhere and gruesomely disfiguring her features. It hadn't helped when her nose had bulged out into a reptilian snout and fangs had sprouted from her jaws, filling her mouth and making it harder to talk. (It didn't help that her tongue had elongated, flattened out, and become forked at the end.) Her eyes had become slitted and an ugly shade of yellow.

And, worst of all, her chest had become completely flat. Her beautiful chest!

She lost everything. Nobody wanted a hideous snake-like creature whose very touch was almost lethally poisonous around! All her contracts were torn up, her shows and appearances cancelled, her sponsorships retracted, her money withheld, her friends and beaus disappeared…

And now she was out on the streets, living in abject poverty and filth, shunned by all. She was even worse off now than she had been when she was a child, or working for Team Rocket. Even her Pokemon had left her (Wobbuffet and Dustox ended up getting their own wildly popular shows, a talk show and a sitcom respectively), save for her Seviper, probably because he no doubt thought she was beautiful now that she was a disgusting serpentine creature like him. _Well_, she though sullenly,_ at least somebody does._

"At leassst you will never leave me…" she hissed to Seviper somewhat deliriously.

The poisonous snake sitting next to her fidgeted nervously. "Um…about that…"

A very familiar Arbok wearing a white tuxedo and carrying a bouqet appeared at the entrance to the alley they were slumming in. "Hello, lover!" the Arbok called to Seviper. "Ready for our big day?"

Jessie's jaw dropped. "Wh-what-"

"Your old Arbok and I have fallen in love and we're going to run off and get married," Seviper said hurriedly. "I didn't know how to tell you…sorry."

"You-you mean you're ABANDONING ME?!" Jessie shrieked. "Ssseviper, how could you?!"

"Well, to be honessst, we talked about letting you move in with usss," Seviper said. "But the landlord for the place we're getting sssaysss no petsss are allowed, essspecially disssgussstingly ugly poisssonousss onesss like you. The neighborsss would complain."

"And we were lucky enough asss isss to find a place willing to leassse to a gay Pokemon couple," Arbok said apologetically. "Ssso we didn't really want to pusssh it. Sssorry, Jesssie."

"But don't worry, I'm sssure sssome homelesss ssshelter sssomewhere will let you in," Seviper said reassuringly. "And if not, there'sss alwaysss the zoo."

"The ZOO?!" Jessie screamed.

Seviper nodded. "Yesss, I hear they're alwaysss looking for new and exotic Pokemon."

"Actually…" said Arbok sheepishly. "I kind of already sssold her to the zoo. In advance. It wasss the only way to get enough to money to afford the rent on the place we're getting, and to find a priessst willing to marry usss. Sssorry."

"You never mentioned that," said an alarmed Seviper.

"It jussst came up. Sssorry," Arbok apologized.

"You sold me to the ZOO?!" Jessie repeated, infuriated.

"Yeah, but don't worry! You'll be famousss again!" Arbok reassured her. "People will come by to sssee you every day! And you'll get three sssquare meals a day, and a warm place to spend the winter! It'sss way better than the deal you have now."

"Hmm, I sssuppossse that'sss true," Seviper admitted. "Well, all right then."

"You're going to let him get away with thisss?!" Jessie demanded.

"Well, I'm in love with him," Seviper told her. "What elssse can I do but forgive him?"

"The zoo people are on their way here," Arbok said. "And we have to get going right now or we'll never make it to the church in time!"

"Oh! Well, in that cassse, let'sss get a move on," Seviper said, shaking out his coils so he could get up. "Goodbye, Jesssie. I promissse we'll come and visssit you at the Zoo ever weekend."

"And we'll bring picturesss, so you can sssee how our wedding went," Arbok promised. "Ssso long!"

"No…WAIT! COME BACK!" Jessie screamed, struggling to unravel herself as the two snakes slithered away. "Don't leave meeeeeee!"

They left her. A moment later, some people from the Zoo showed up, netted her, stuffed her in a van, and drove off.

She really wasn't having a good day.

…

James wasn't having a good day, either.

Much like Brock, it was his wedding day.

James didn't want to get married. Especially not to Jessiebelle, who looked exactly like Jessie except she was rich and, as impossible as that seemed, even eviler and nastier.

However, he didn't really have a choice. He had somehow been abducted and brought back to his childhood home, and was now being forced to go through with the wedding ceremony. To make sure he couldn't run off, his parents had also bound and gagged him, so he couldn't move an inch from where he stood next to Jessiebelle, before the altar. His father also had a shotgun pointed at the backs of James' knees, just to dissuade any thoughts James might have had of not going through with the marriage when the time came. James personally thought it was a little much, but clearly his father felt otherwise.

"Dearly beloved," rasped the Archbishop of Kanto, whom his parents had managed to get to perform the wedding so that it would be legally binding and completely unbreakable by anything short of one spouse dropping dead. (James had no illusions about which of them would be the first to die.) "We are gathered here today to unite these two young people, James Morgan and Jessiebelle Jessiebella, in holy matrimony. If anyone objects to this marriage, speak now or forever hold your peace."

Nobody said anything. That was probably because James, Jessiebelle, James' parents, and Jesseibelle's Vileplume were the only people there in the garden attending the ceremony. James' Pokemon had all been locked up, along with his old friend Growlie, to keep from interfering. James started wriggling frantically, trying desperately to indicate to the Archbishop that he really, honestly, did not want to get married, but then he heard his father undoing the safety of his shotgun and quickly stood still.

"Isn't this wonderful, Jimmy?" Jessiebelle whispered to James in her Southern accent. "Soon you and I will be married! Won't that be fun?" Recalling the S M dungeon Jessiebelle had transformed the mansion's basement into, James sweatdropped, certain it would be anything _but_ fun.

"If there are no objections, then I see no reason these two cannot be wed. Jessiebelle Jessiebella, do you take James Morgan to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do indeed!" she said happily.

"And do you, James Morgan, take Jessiebelle Jessiebella to be your lawfully wedded bride?" The Archbishop waited a moment. James said and did nothing, because he was bound and gagged and had a shotgun pointed at his knees. His father prodded him with the aforementioned gun, and he nodded frantically, sweat rolling down his skin. "Very well. I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride." Jessiebelle squealed with delight and turned to James, puckering him. James' eyes widened in horror, and inside he screamed and screamed and screamed…

And suddenly, his bonds broke, and his clothes shredded off, and much to his and everyone else's surprise, he was a blue-haired Cacturne. Jessiebelle screamed and stumbled back, her lips bleeding from where they had gotten pricked by James' new cactus thorns. "W-well I never!"

"Oh my," said a surprised James' mother. "What's all this, then?"

"My son has become a Cacturne!" James' father cried. He shrugged and holstered his shotgun. "Oh well, guess the wedding's off, then."

"WHAT?!" Jessiebelle shrieked, as her Vileplume cried out in alarm. "What do you MEAN it's off?!"

"My son is a Cacturne," James' father explained. "There's no way he can possibly marry you if he's a Cacturne."

"Yes, it just doesn't make any sense," James' mother agreed. "Completely preposterous!"

"But…but…" Jessiebelle protested.

"It's against the law, too," the Archbishop agreed, clapping his hands. "Very well, then, I declare this marriage invalid. James is a free man, or Cacturne, as it were."

"Woohoo! Even though I'm a Cacturne…" James cheered.

"Noooooooo!" screamed Jessiebelle, running off in tears. Vileplume looked around in confusion, shrugged, then ran after her.

"James, since you're a Cacturne and no longer getting married, I suppose we can release your Pokemon! And here they are!" James' father said.

James' Pokemon appeared out of nowhere and…well, pretty much attacked him. Victreebel swallowed him from the waist down, Cacnea hugged him and dug her thorns into his skin, Chimecho wrapped his tail around his eyes so he couldn't see anything, and Carnivine bit his head. Mime Jr. stared at him for a moment, then wisely decided to keep a safe distance. "I'm happy to see you all too," James said, his voice muffle due to his head being stuck inside Carnivine's mouth.

"My, it looks like your Pokemon like you quite a lot. I see no reason not to mass-marry you all right on the spot! I hereby declare you Cacturne and large group of Pokemon!" the Archbishop said joyfully.

James' mother blinked. "Wait, are you allowed to do that?"

"Fuck that, I'm the Archbishop, I can do whatever the hell I want," the priest said, puffing on a clove cigar.

"Um…I'm married…Yay?" said a confused James.

"Yaaaaaayyyy!" his Pokemon cheered ecstatically.

"Oh look, and here comes your Weezing, back from Hoenn!" James' father said, pointing to a large and rather morose-looking two-headed grotesque purple floating ball of gas.

"Weezing," Weezing groaned, sounding like it was going to drop dead at any moment.

James gasped with delight. "Weezing! You've come back to me! Come give us a hug!" He rushed towards his old friend and wrapped his arms around the big purple vaguely spherical thing in a hug…

Puncturing Weezing's sides with the many thorns on his arms and causing Weezing to deflate rather rapidly. "Weeeeeeeeeeeeziiiiiiiiiing!" Weezing wailed as he arced into the air, gases leaking from the many holes in his sides to propel him up and away, his body quickly losing its spherical shape and starting to look more like an empty hackeysack.

"Weezing! Oh no!" James cried in horror.

"Well, looks like he's blasting off again," James' father said pleasantly.

"Oh look, and here's your even older friend Growly!" James' mother said as Growly the Arcanine came bounding happily towards James, barking and trailing embers with every step and leap.

"Growly!" James cried happily, momentarily forgetting about Weezing and hopping towards his childhood friend. (He would have ran, but Victreebel had swallowed his legs.) "Come give us a hug!"

"Dear, aren't Grass-types weak against Fire-types?" James' mother asked his father.

James' father thought about that for a moment. "You know, I do believe you're right."

James' eyes bulged and he stopped in his tracks. Growly, on the other hand, kept charging towards him, flames billowing off his form. "Ah, Growly, I think we should think about this for a minute-"

Growly breathed fire on him, his way of saying 'hello'. James burned. It was very painful. He screamed in agony, as did the Grass Pokemon clinging to his body, also burning.

"It would seem our son is on fire," James' father commented, watching James run around screaming.

"Yes, what a pity," James' mother agreed. They both laughed. James continued to burn. Neither of them made any attempt to put it out. Growly panted and drooled, his saliva lighting the grass on fire. Mr. Mime sweatdropped, thinking, _This is incredibly fucked up._

And so it was. And so it was.

…

Following the same theme as the other Team Rocket dreams, it was only inevitable that Meowth would have a bad dream, right?

And _what_ a dream…

"Waaaaaaahhhh! Boss, why're you doing dis to me?!" Meowth screamed as he ran desperately against the flow of the conveyor belt in the nightmarish factory, trying to avoid being sucked into the demonic-looking machine it fed into.

Giovanni, who was standing on a catwalk overlooking the conveyor stroking Persian, laughed nefariously. "You have failed me for the last time, Mewoth! So, I am giving you the punishment you deserve…sending you to the violin factory! I happen to be quite the proficient violinist myself, and look forward to hearing what sort of tune your intestines will make when they're turned into strings! Wahahahahaha!"

Persian stuck his tongue out at Meowth. "Better you than me, loser! Muhahahaha! Loser! Loser! Loser!"

"Damn you, Persian!" Meowth screamed. "Dis is why I'm never gonna evolve into you?" He gasped suddenly, seeing a female Meowth join the boss and his pet on the catwalk. "Meowzi! Is dat you? Did you come here to save me?!"

"Actually, no, I came here because Giovanni's Persian is my boyfriend and I'm expecting," his old flame told him as she nuzzled Persian affectionately, causing him to purr. "Oh, and I hate your guts and think you stink, just so you know."

"AAAAARRRRGGGHHH! I HATE EVERYONE!" Meowth screamed as he succumbed to the pull of the conveyor belt and was finally sucked towards the monstrous catgut processing machine behind him.

"That's the spirit!" Giovanni called after him. "That hatred should make for absolutely delightful strings…I look forward to playing them, Meowth! How fitting that, in death, you will finally do something satisfactory for a change!" He laughed again.

"Bite me!" Meowth yelled, giving his boss the middle finger, before he was consumed by the infernal device.

…

Elsewhere…

Cynthia took a sip of tea from her cup and looked across the table at the oddly-colored Mismagius sitting on the opposite side from her. "Well, I must say, I appreciate you taking the time to explain all this to me…and am relieved to know you're not evil…"

"Thanks," said Phantasma.

Cynthia frowned. "But I'm afraid I still don't understand a few things. You wanted to reward us for inadvertently releasing you from your imprisonment…so you're doing things to our dreams because…?"

"You were all unconscious, so I decided, dreams would be the perfect media through which to grant your desires," Phantasma explained. "Since most of you were already dreaming about what you wanted anyway. I just tweaked them a little. Well, a lot."

"So you're rewarding us by giving us what we want in _dreams?_ That's very sweet of you, but what happens when we all wake up?" Cynthia asked.

Phantasma smirked. "You underestimate my magic. I'm no ordinary Mismagius, I'm Phantasma, Queen of Ghosts and the greatest sorceress on this planet. When they wake up, what I have given to them in dreams will be their new reality."

Cynthia raised an eyebrow, impressed. "So you have the ability to change _real_ reality by altering a dream? That's very impressive."

"Why thank you."

"I suppose I should probably be a bit more distressed about this, but…other than the changes to the individual lives of the dreamers, will this new reality be very different from the old one?" Cynthia asked.

"Not especially, no. Nobody else's lives will be drastically or negatively affected by my spell," Phantasma explained. "None of the 'dream deaths' of other people that have occurred so far will transfer to reality. I'm not a murderer." She considered for a moment. "Well, except maybe Paul…what?" she protested when Cynthia glared. "You know as well as I do he didn't deserve to live! I know you have to find the best in everyone, but honestly, he was just plain bad through and through!" Cynthia glared. Phantasma rolled her eyes. "But fine, if it's such a big deal, I can make the real Paul still alive…geez."

"What about Meowth? Is he going to actually become a violin?" Cynthia asked.

Phantasma smirked. "No, that's just me having a little fun. Punishing him and those other two for planning to use me for evil means. I actually have other plans for him. Nothing fatal, I assure you."

"All right. What about the people in that village Ambipom took over?" Cynthia asked.  
Phantasma grimaced. "Well…"

They both turned to look at the giant wall screen nearby, which Phantasma had been using to show Cynthia the dreams she had crafted for her saviors (and Team Rocket). Automatically, it changed channels to display a small and oddly Grecian-style village somewhere in Kanto, where Ambipom sat on a throne atop a very tall stone dais, wearing a toga, Ash's hat, and a crown over that hat. A malevolent expression was on her face as she ordered the villagers about, her will enforced by very burly and cruel-looking Mankey, Primeape, Aipom, Ambipom, Vigoroth, Chimchar, Monferno, and Infernape. In the village square below, Ambipom's new suspects were toiling under the watchful eye (and whip) of the cruel monkeys as they were made to construct a giant statue of their new ruler. "Faster! Tell those slaves to work faster, I wish to behold my beautiful statue before the week is out! It must be as tall as this dais, no, taller, so that everyone for miles can see my image and know that I, Ambipom, am the undisputed Queen and master of all that I survey!"

One of her new slaves, Hank, who had been the village's former king but was now just another common laborer, desperately beseeched his mistress. "Your Majesty, please! My people need sleep, and food! They cannot keep working at this breakneck pace unless you give them a chance to restEEYYYYAAAAGGGHHH!" He fell to his hands and knees as one of the nearby Monferno lashed out with a whip, cutting open his back and adding a new scar to the many others already there.

Ambipom waved one of her tail-hands dismissively. "Tell the slaves that if they do not finish the statue within the week, they will receive no food…AT ALL. That should be enough incentive to make them get the job done." She glanced at Hank, who was lying sobbing on the floor as her monkey guards stomped on his injured back. "Take that slave away, flog and beat him thoroughly, then lock him in one of the public hanging cages as an example to the others of what happens to those who defy my authority."

"No…not that!" Hank gasped, realizing the Queen was talking about the very cramped cages she had set up after her first few days on the throne that hung in public places with the prisoners whom she was especially displeased with trapped inside. The cages had spikes on the insides and offered no protection from the sun, so the occupants were as likely to die from exposure and exhaustion and starvation. "Please, anything but that!"

Ambipom shrugged. "Well, if you insist, we can throw you in the dungeons, torture you, rape you, then chop you up and make you into food for the other slaves to eat."

Hank sweatdropped. "Er, on second that, I'll take the cage, please."

"That's what I thought. Take him away! And somebody bring me more bananas!" Ambipom shrieked as they dragged Hank off. She giggled malevolently and rubbed her paws together. "It looks as if a new age is dawning…soon my dream of making the Planet of the Apes a reality shall come to pass! And where are those bananas, dammit?!"

Phantasma sweatdropped. Cynthia took another sip of tea. "Okay, _that_ dream I'm definitely not going to make come true…I swear, I didn't know she had this kind of plan in mind when she wanted to be Queen."

"All right," said Cynthia. "What about Brock's dream? I don't think he's going to be happy when he finds out who he's getting married to."

"I did that because I thought it would be funny. And to keep him from being such a horndog all the time," Phantasma admitted.

"Couldn't you just lower his testosterone level?" Cynthia asked.

"I was going to do that too," the Mismagius said. She shrugged. "To be honest, I can't help playing matchmaker when I see two people who are obviously perfect for each other but just don't realize it. It's the mischievous part of me. I suppose a case could be made saying that's part of why those idiots sealed me away to begin with…"

"I don't really object to the matchmaking," Cynthia commented. "However, one thing I really don't understand is…why the transformations?"

Mismagius shrugged. "Seemed like a good idea at the time."

Cynthia frowned. "Will those transformations be permanent?"

"Only if they want them to be. Well, except for Team Rocket. They don't really get a say in that." She grinned evilly.

"All right," said Cynthia. She took another sip of tea, then put her empty teacup on the table between them. "That just brings me to my final question."

"Yes?"

"Where do _I_ fit into this? No offense, but you haven't really done much to bring any of my dreams true so far."

"That's partly because there isn't really much else you want from life," Phantasma explained. "You're already living a lifestyle pretty much as close to your personal ideal as you can get."

"I suppose that's true," Cynthia admitted.

"However…you are rather passionate about studying old myths and legends, aren't you?" Phantasma asked. Cynthia nodded. "And…I just so happen to not only _be_ one of those legends…but knew the subjects of quite a few of the others bantering about now quite well, back in the day."

Cynthia raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

Phantasma laughed. "Oh, the stories I could tell you…"

"Well, if you're offering to tell me those stories…" said Cynthia, a smile growing on her face. "I'd be more than happy to listen."

"Excellent," said Phantasma. She decided she'd wait to ask Cynthia if she'd be interested in becoming her Consort later. "However, before that…there are a few other things we need to attend to."

"Such as?" Cynthia asked.

"Such as your Pokemon…and what _they_ desire." Phantasma and Cynthia both turned to look at Cynthia's Pokemon, who had at that moment been in the middle of a four-way match of Super Smash Bros Brawl while Milotic watched and Spirittomb stirred bitterly since it didn't have any arms. The six Pokemon stiffened, realizing their trainer and her host were looking at them. "Spirittomb wants to be freed-"

"Never going to happen," Cynthia said at once.

Phantasma nodded. "My thoughts exactly. However, as for the others…Gastrodon's in love with Milotic, Milotic and Roserade are in love with Lucario, and Lucario and Garchomp are in love with…well, you."

The five Pokemon's faces went white with horror as the secret desires of their hearts were revealed for all (and their trainer) to see. Cynthia's eyes widened. Spirittomb laughed evilly, greatly amused. "Oh…my," Cynthia said after a moment, for once at a loss of words. "I think…we all need to have a little chat…trainer and Pokemon…" Cynthia's Pokemon swallowed and glanced away from each other.

Phantasma sighed. "Yeah…this is going to take a while…"

…

"Okay, Arceus is a Normal-type…I think…so He should be weak against Fighting-types!" Ash sweatdropped. "Except that I don't really have any…so…Staraptor, go!"

"Okay!" Staraptor squawked, flying out onto the field.

"Why's he using Staraptor first instead of someone totally awesome like me?" Buizel asked Pikachu.

"Because Ash's birds are usually the first to get knocked out in battles, so Ash probably figures it'd be a good idea to get Staraptor's inevitable defeat out of the way early, hopefully doing some damage to Arceus in the process," Pikachu explained.

"Hey!" Ash said angrily. "That's totally not true! Now, Staraptor, use Aerial Ace!"

"Right!" Staraptor flew straight towards Arceus, who didn't flinch or react in the slightest. Before he could reach the god, Staraptor suddenly ascended high into the air. His wings started glowing white, and he dove right towards Arceus, intending to hit the deity with them. He drew back his wings, preparing to hit his target…

And missed. Somehow, at the absolute last second, Arceus had shifted just a few inches to the side, and was now completely out of range of the attack. Or had Staraptor somehow miscalculated his angle of descent just a little, and Arceus hadn't moved at all? It was so hard to tell…

Startled, Staraptor, lost control of his dive and crashed to the ground, tossing and tumbling about in the dirt for several feet before coming to a rather awkward and painful stop, shed feathers drifting through the air behind him. "Ow…" He looked up and saw that Arceus was staring down at him rather impassively. "Oh crap…"

"Staraptor, get out of there!" Ash cried in alarm.

Desperately, Staraptor tried to do just that. Unfortunately, Arceus' eyes glowed as He used Gravity, abruptly causing the bird to weigh five times heavier than he usually did and become completely unable of moving. Arceus then raised one of His hooves into the air and brought it down on Staraptor's head with a stomp which, while not looking like much, was apparently so powerful that it drove Staraptor right into the ground, leaving a very large and very deep hole behind him.

"Wow," said Chimchar.

"We're fucked," whimpered Turtwig.

"Eh, he's not so tough," Buizel said carelessly.

"Staraptor!" Ash yelled.

Without warning, Staraptor, body oddly hot and steaming, fell out of the sky behind them and hit the ground with an earth-shaking crash, creating a small crater on impact. "What the heck?!" cried a startled Pikachu.

"Staraptor! Are you okay?" Ash asked, running into the crater to pick up the unconscious bird…only to yelp and drop him, because he was much too hot for human hands to touch.

Not too hot for Chimchar's though. "How'd he get in the sky?" the fire monkey wondered, poking his knocked-out teammate.

"Yeah, didn't he get driven into the ground?" Turtwig asked.

"He was," Arceus said, causing them all to yelp and jump because it sounded like He was right behind them, even though He was in actuality still on the other side of the arena. "However, I stomped on him a little harder than I intended. So hard, in fact, that he was driven straight through to the other side of the planet, where, due to his increased gravity and the force of my stomp, he broke free from the planet's atmosphere and gravity field and flew off into space, circumnavigated the entire universe, then found his way back to our solar system and crashed here. I shielded his body so it wouldn't be affected adversely by the vacuum of deep space, or the heat of reentry, or torn apart by its own velocity."

"Oh," Ash said faintly. "Um, thanks?" The crowd cheered.

"Ash, I _really_ think we're out of our league here," Pikachu said anxiously.

"On the plus side, Arceus has proven He's a loving and caring God, who doesn't seem to hold the fact that we're fighting Him against us," said a relieved Turtwig.

"I wonder what Staraptor saw out there, in the depths of space?" Chimchar asked curiously.

"Stars…" Staraptor rasped. "It was full…of stars…"

"STARAPTOR IS UNABLE TO BATTLE! ARCEUS IS THE WINNER!" the announcer declared. The crowd cheered.

"And so another Flying type bites the dust, proving its skills were covered in rust! That's okay, in Ash we trust, remember that it's victory or bust!" Politoed and his cheerleading squad sang. "Gooooo Ash!"

"Staraptor, you deserve a good long rest. Return!" Ash said, calling the bird back to his Pokeball. He swallowed and looked at his remaining team, getting the sinking sensation that they just weren't ready to face an opponent like this. "Great…who's next?"

"Let me do it! I can take Him!" Buizel said brashly.

Ash privately doubted it, as did everyone else, but if he wanted it so badly. "Okay, Buizel, you're up!"

"Woohoo! Finally, I get to face an opponent worthy of my mad skillz!" Buizel boasted, running out onto the field before Ash. "Let's get 'im!"

"Well, okay…Buizel, Aqua Jet!" Ash ordered.

"Booyah! Take this, Arceus!" Buizel declared, surrounding himself in a shell of water and launching himself at the deity like a torpedo. "This is what I think of You and Your stupid religion and the stupid people who worship You!"

"Hmm." Arceus' eyes glowed. Abruptly, the water around Buizel froze solid, encasing him in a block of ice. The sudden change in weight caused the projectile to fall to the ground, skidding in the dirt and coming to a stop some distance from Arceus.

"Cool," said Turtwig. "Literally. Can't say he didn't deserve it, though." Pikachu nodded reluctantly. Chimchar shivered as his teeth chattered together, more sensitive than the others to the abrupt change in temperature.

"Whoa!" cried an astounded Ash. "How'd Hhe do that?! I didn't even see Him use an Ice attack?!"

"I withdrew all the heat from the air and water molecules surrounding Buizel, making it cold enough to freeze," Arceus explained. A rather large ball of fire appeared over His head. "And this is where it all went." The fireball hurtled down towards the frozen Buizel, exploding and shattering the ice block. Buizel flew through the air, wailing, before landing hard on his head right before Ash and passing out. "Tell him when he wakes up that all braggarts are eventually hoisted on their own petards, and that I don't force anyone to worship Me, it's their choice and their choice alone. That's why I gifted people with free will, so they could make decisions on their own."

"S-sure thing," stammered Ash as he returned Buizel to his Pokeball. He wondered idly what the heck a petard was.

"BUIZEL IS UNABLE TO BATTLE! ARCEUS IS THE WINNER!" the announcer declared.

"ARCEUS! ARCEUS! ARCEUS!" the crowd cheered.

"He's the best god ever! He smites blasphemers justly, but is compassionate enough towards His foes to give them advice on how to live a better life even while He kicks their ass!" Mew said happily. "That's why we love Him!"

"Bah, he's not so great," Mewtwo grumbled, which resulted in the other Legendaries booing and throwing stuff at him.

"And so Buizel lost his game! That's all right, he was really lame! However, just the same, keep fighting Ash, or you'll wind up just like your name!" Politoed's squad cheered. "Goooooo Ash!"

"Okay guys, I know things look bad…" Ash said, trying to give his team a pep talk.

"You think?" Turtwig asked dryly.

"Just for that, you're up next," Ash said crossly.

"Crap," muttered the turtle as he reluctantly walked onto the field. "Wait, what am I worried about? I'm a member of the Brotherhood of Badass now! There's no way I can lose and let my Brothers down!"

"Hey Rookie, when you lose, try not to make the rest of us look bad!" Charizard yelled from the stands.

"Yeah, lose with dignity, or something like that! Or at least make it look like you put up a fight!" Sceptile added.

Turtwig sweatdropped. "So nice to see how much they care for my well-being…"

"Seeking to impress others only leads to humiliation and a feeling of emptiness inside," Arceus advised Turtwig. "Most of the time, the only person you need to prove something to is yourself."

Turtwig blinked in surprise. "Really? You think so? Huh, I guess that makes sense…thanks, Arceus!" He paused. "Uh, does that mean…"

"You still have to fight me."

Turtwig winced. "Aw, fuck. Er, I'm not in trouble for cursing in your presence, am I?"

Arceus shook His head. "No. You'd be surprised how often I'm tempted to profane as well, usually when one of my children do something incredibly foolish."

Immediately, everyone in the private legendary seating area looked at Articuno, Moltres, Zapdos, Groudon, Kyogre, Palkia, Dialga, Darkrai, and Giratina. "What?!" they yelled, rather miffed.

"Okay, Turtwig, direct physical attacks clearly don't work on him…so let's try something different! Use Razor Leaf!" Ash commanded.

"Okay!" Turtwig fired several dozen spinning razor-edged leaves at Arceus.

All of them missed. Or did Arceus dodge? It was very hard to say. Turtwig could have sworn every single one of them was aimed on-target, but each leaf seemed to miss the deity by just a fraction of a millimeter. It didn't _look_ as if Arceus had moved even slightly from where He was standing, but…

Either way, none of the leaves hit, and they tumbled to the ground, their purpose in life at an end. "Fuck," Turtwig said again.

"Use Energy Ball!" Ash cried.

"I haven't mastered it yet!" Turtwig shouted back, panicking.

"Yes you have, you're in the Brotherhood now, there's no move you can't pull off!" Sceptile called to Turtwig.

"Wait, didn't you get complete move amnesia that one time and forget all your attacks?" Squirtle pointed out. "And didn't you have trouble learning Bullet Seed, too?"

Sceptile smacked him with his tail. "Shut up."

"Well, okay…if you guys say so!" Turtwig opened his mouth, drawing on power from the nature all around him…and…

A green energy ball formed in his mouth! The turtle was so excited he almost lost focus and caused the energy ball to dissipate, but he quickly caught himself and kept a grasp on it. With a cry of joy, he spat it towards Arceus, who…

Just looked at it, and it disappeared. Turtwig's jaw dropped. Then, Arceus put one hoof on the ground, as His hooves, underside, wheel, and face turned a light brown…

And the earth beneath Turtwig exploded as Arceus used Earth Power, sending Turtwig flying. "LOOKS LIKE I'M BLASTING OFF FOR THE FIRST TIIIIIIME!" He screamed as he vanished over the horizon.

"TURTWIG IS UNABLE TO BATTLE! ARCEUS IS THE WINNER!" the announcer declared. The crowd cheered.

"And just like that he's blasting off, up, up and away, like David Hasslehoff! While things look bad, there's still no reason to scoff, we all know Ash can pull it off! Goooo Ash!" Politoed's squad cheered.

"Turtwig!" Ash cried.

"Oh well, guess we'll have to kick him out of the Brotherhood," said Charizard with a sigh.

"Wait, I don't think you're supposed to send Pokemon all the way out of the stadium…isn't that illegal?" Pikachu asked suspiciously.

It was at that point that Turtwig, still screaming, came flying in from the opposite end of the stadium, arced over the wall and the Legendary Pokemon, and crash-landed right behind Ash, out cold. Ash and his Pokemon sweatdropped. Pikachu sighed. "Don't tell me…You accidentally hit him so hard that he flew ALL THE WAY around the Earth and back, right?"

"Essentially, yes," Arceus admitted, as His hooves, underside, wheel, and face momentarily turned red.

Pikachu groaned and rubbed his forehead. "Figures."

"Well, at least he didn't blast off into space," Chimchar pointed out. "That's something."

"Chimchar, you're up!" said Ash.

"Crap," said Chimchar. "Wish me luck."

"You'll need it," Pikachu agreed as the fire monkey walked out onto the field.

"Hey, Arceus, um, before we start…am I damned or anything for killing Paul?" Chimchar asked timidly.

"No, if anything your entry into Paradise is guaranteed, I was going to get around to punishing him anyway," Arceus said.

"Oh, good."

"Chimchar, use Flame Wheel!" Ash commanded.

"Okay." Chimchar started somersaulting towards Arceus, flames forming around him to create a flaming wheel as he rolled towards the god.

He never made it. A crackling ball of energy appeared out of nowhere and slammed into Chimchar from the side, extinguishing the flames and promptly knocking him out. "I said you weren't damned, but I didn't say you weren't going to be punished," Arceus said sternly. "While Paul will not be missed, I cannot allow my children to go around killing people without consequences. It sets a bad example for everyone."

All the Legendaries looked at Articuno, Moltres, Zapdos, Groudon, Kyogre, Palkia, Dialga, Darkrai, Giratina, and Mewtwo. "WHAT?!" they yelled in frustration.

"CHIMCHAR IS UNABLE TO BATTLE! ARCEUS IS THE WINNER!" the announcer declared. The audience cheered.

"Okay, he lost pretty fast…but that's okay, you've saved the best for last! Now it's Pikachu's time to shine, with him on your side you'll soon be on cloud nine!" Politoed's squad cheered. "Gooooo Ash!"

"Chimchar, return!" Ash yelled, recalling the fire monkey to his Pokeball. He smiled sadly. "You did great, buddy…" He frowned. "What attack was that, anyway?"

"Future Sight," said Pikachu. "He must have invoked it after defeating Turtwig, so it would hit Chimchar right away."

"Seemed kinda mean how He just knocked him out right away after saying nothing bad would happen to him for killing Paul…" Ash muttered.

"No, He said Chimchar wouldn't be _damned,_ He said nothing about not being punished," Pikachu corrected him. "Arceus is a just and caring god, and while He may respect and even agree to an extent with Chimchar's actions, that doesn't mean He can just let him get away with killing Paul without facing the consequences for it." He sweatdropped. "Which…probably means I'm going to get punished for killing Tyson, aren't I?"

In the crowd, Charizard paled. "Oh shit, I'd better get out of here before something happens to ME for killing Harris-" A frying pan fell out of the sky and bonked him on the head, knocking him out. His Brothers sweatdropped.

"Well, I suppose that's one way to discourage murder…" Squirtle said doubtfully.

"Pikachu…you're all that's left…" Ash said, looking at his first Pokemon and oldest friend.

Pikachu nodded uneasily. "Looks that way, yeah…"

Ash hesitated for a moment. "Pikachu…I know the odds don't look good against us, and I know you don't feel fighting your god-"

"EVERYONE'S God," Pikachu corrected sternly.

Ash rolled his eyes. "Whatever. You don't feel fighting Him is right. So…if…" He swallowed. "If you think we should walk away…I'll do it. Right now. We'll walk away, and won't look back, and…and we'll try again another day. When we're stronger, more ready. So…so just say the word, and we'll leave, now, if you want to."

Pikachu was stunned. "Ash…are you saying you're thinking of forfeiting the match? Just so you won't have to see me get beaten up by Arceus?"

"Pikachu…" said Ash.

"Ash…" Pikachu said. "That's…I think that's one of the most considerate things you've ever said. But…there's no way I can accept. Even if it means I'm going to get hurt, and am kinda blaspheming, there's no way I can just walk away. No way WE can walk away. We haven't made it as far as we have by backing down from a challenge. So…so even if, in all likelihood, we're going to lose this and lose badly…bring it on! I'd rather lose fair and square than just quit any day!"

Ash smiled, tears welling up in his eyes. "Pikachu…thanks."

The audience went 'awww.' Well, not all of them. Groudon and Kyogre gagged, Palkia and Dialga rolled their eyes, Darkrai and Giratina pretended to vomit, the three idiot birds burst into laughter until Lugia smacked them, the Regis' beeped in annoyance, and Mewtwo snorted and said, "Sentimental bullshit." That caused everyone else to pelt him with garbage.

"Now, let's go lose this!" Pikachu declared.

"Right!" said Ash. He pointed dramatically at Arceus. "Pikachu, I choose you!"

"Okay!" Pikachu ran out into the field, facing down the god. "Okay, Arceus, bring it on!"

"Very well." Arceus began gathering power as He changed back to his original color.

Pikachu froze, suddenly realizing the full immensity of what he was doing. _Wait a minute. What the hell am I doing? I'm going up against Arceus. ARCEUS! I'm gonna get killed! I've gotta get out of-_

A pillar of white light shot down from the heavens and slammed down on Pikachu as Arceus used Judgment, shaking the arena. The pillar retracted as quickly as it had appeared, leaving behind a totally black and sizzling Pikachu. "Ow," he said. Then he passed out. Ash's jaw dropped in disbelief.

"PIKACHU IS UNABLE TO BATTLE! THE WINNER OF THE MATCH, AND STILL-REIGNING POKEMON MASTER OF THE WORLD, IS ARCEUS!" The crowd cheered. Even Ash's friends and family in the audience cheered for Arceus.

Politoed glanced at his squad. "You got anything?" They shook their heads. "Yeah, me neither. Guess we have to throw in the towel, then…oh well."

"That…that's it? I lost?!" Ash asked incredulously, looking at the unconscious Pikachu in disbelief. Some part of him had believed that, as long as Pikachu was still standing, he still had a chance of actually WINNING the fight. That part of him was now completely destroyed. Arceus had defeated Pikachu, his strongest and oldest Pokemon, in less than a second. Ash had thought Pikachu might have actually been able to last a _little_ longer than that, but he was clearly wrong about that, and a great many other things. "N-no…it can't be…that can't be the end…"

"Ha ha! You lose! Let's all laugh at the loserpants and make big 'L's on our forehead!" laughed Groudon, making a large 'L' on his forehead with his claws. He glanced at the others and noticed that only Registeel was mimicking him. Regigas smacked Registeel, making him lower his arm. Groudon stopped laughing. "Huh? Why aren't the rest of you doing it?"

"That would be because we either don't agree with your sentiments…or don't have enough fingers that are flexible enough to do it," Kyogre said sullenly. The three elemental birds nodded in agreement.

"Oh," said Groudon. "Darn. Well…Darkrai, what about you? You think he's a loserpants, don't you?"

"No, not really," Darkrai said. "Sorry, my good chap, but I find him quite endearing."

Cresselia gasped. "Darkrai, I'm delighted to hear that!"

Darkrai nodded. "Yes, I look forward to giving him nightmares. His screams of terror are simply delectable, and his mind is so _delicious_ in its…unique brand of innocence. Or is that ignorance? Same difference" Cresselia gave him a disgusted look and sighed.

Groudon huffed and crossed his arms. "You guys suck."

"No, you do," Mew said sternly. "Sit down and shut up."

Groudon stuck his tongue out at her. "You're not the boss of me."

"Yes I am," Mew pointed out, causing Groudon to sweatdrop.

"As am I," growled Rayquaza. "Now sit down and shut up before I pound you."

"Me too," added Latias.

"And I as well," said Lugia.

Groudon yelped and cowered in his seat. "Sourpusses," he muttered in his breath.

"We heard that!"

"Ack!" Groudon cried. Mewtwo pointed and laughed. For once, nobody threw anything at him.

Arceus graciously bowed His head to Ash. "Ash Ketchum, I congratulate you for making it this far, and apologize for having to end your ambitions so swiftly. Perhaps you will have better luck next time. I look forward to seeing you again." He began to turn away…

Until Ash interrupted. "WAIT!"

Arceus glanced back at Ash. "Hmm?"

"This match isn't over yet! I've only used five Pokemon, and I can use a maximum of six, right?!" Ash asked desperately.

"Yes, but you only had five," Arceus pointed out.

Ash shook his head. "Wrong! I have one more! MYSELF!"

Everyone stared at him. Groudon and Mewtwo pointed and laughed, until the others threw garbage at them. Professor Oak sighed and shook his head. "Oh dear, the boy's lost it. He must be so upset by his defeat that he's gone totally mad!"

Delia shook her head sadly. "My poor, insane son…"

"Ash," Arceus said patiently. "You are a human, not a Pokemon. There's a rather large difference."

"Or IS there?" Ash asked.

"…Yes. Yes there is."

"Ha! That's what YOU think!" A rather disturbing look in his eyes, Ash took off his hat and threw it behind him. Then he removed his shirt and vest and cast those off, too, so everyone could see his skinny chest. Then he clenched his fists and started straining with every muscle in his body. "Gnnn…" he grunted as he gritted his teeth and screwed up his face and in general made himself look very, very constipated.

Arceus stared. The audience stared. Even Groudon and Mewtwo stopped laughing, finding the whole thing more embarrassing and awkward and just ridiculously sad than funny. Professor Oak put his face in his hands. Delia wept. Ash continued clenching and grunting and straining and making a fool out of himself. Arceus coughed, and started to say something, when suddenly…

Ash turned into a Machamp. His muscles bulked up considerably, his pants and shoes shredded, leaving him wearing only the underwear his mother had made him put on (thankfully), bony disk-like crests grew from his head, and a second set of arms sprouted out from his sides. "Hooooaaaaaahhhhh!" He flexed his muscles, punched at the air, thrusted his pelvis outward. "I am…POKEMAN!" The unconscious Pikachu woke up briefly, stared at his trainer in disbelief, shook his head, and passed out again.

The audience gaped. "Oh my," said an astounded Delia.

"This-this is impossible! It defies all the laws of science! A human cannot spontaneously transform into a Pokemon, on his own, just because he wants to!" Professor Oak shrieked, tearing out his hair.

"…Well, that was unexpected," a stunned Sceptile said.

Arceus blinked, looking rather disturbed. "…Not even I saw this coming."

"Wtbloodyf?" Darkrai cursed in a bizarre mix of chatspeak and faux British.

Everyone instantly looked at Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Mewtwo, the psychic trio, and Palkia. "We didn't do it!" they protested.

"Yeah, we would've done something cooler than a Machamp, anyway," Jirachi added.

"It doesn't really make a difference, Arceus'll still cream him anyway," Mewtwo griped. "This is just a stupid plot twist meant to make the whole stupid thing drag on longer. Like in Dragonball Z." He was right, and nobody threw garbage at him. Well, except for Groudon, who apparently liked DBZ, and Darkrai, who thought it would be fun to throw things at Mewtwo. It was.

"ER…LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IN AN UNUSAL TWIST OF EVENTS, IT SEEMS THAT ASH KETCHUM HAS…SOMEHOW…BECOME HIS OWN SIXTH POKEMON, AND THEREFORE CAN COMPETE IN THE BATTLE! THOUGH I'M PRETTY SURE THAT'S AGAINST THE RULES…OH, WHATEVER. THIS IS THE MOST BIZARRE POKEMON BATTLE I'VE EVER SEEN," the announcer complained.

Politoed's squad quickly got back in formation. "We have no idea what's going on, because now Ash Ketchum's a Pokemon! Even so, we'll cheer him on, it's what we do, he's our number one! Goooooo Ash!"

"Well, this is most unusual," Arceus murmured. "But…since you have somehow managed to produce a miracle, Ash Ketchum, I shall battle you."

"All right!" Ash bellowed. He immediately ran towards Arceus, drawing back two of his four fists to deliver a powerful double punch. "Haaaaaaa…."

Arceus opened His mouth and spoke a single word, in His true voice, not the one He had been using to talk throughout the battle. (Of course he has many voices, he's God. Duh.) The earth quaked. Reality trembled. The stadium shook. Everyone went deaf for a few seconds, and even when their hearing came back, it took several more minutes for their brains to start working again. Pretty much the entire battlefield was completely destroyed, save for the spot Arceus was standing on and where Pikachu was lying. Ash, still a Machamp, was plastered against the stadium wall opposite Arceus. Or rather, he was _buried_ about six inches into it, creating a large Machamp-shaped hole. Arceus' Hyper Voice attack packed a very heavy hit.

Arceus frowned at Ash. "Hmm." He looked down at Pikachu, and suddenly the electric rat was awake and completely healed.

"Huh? What just happened?" asked a confused Pikachu.

"I just defeated your trainer," said Arceus. "Please fetch him out of the wall. I would have words with him."

Pikachu glanced over at the wall, then gave Arceus a blank look. "Uh, that's a Machamp. Not Ash."

"Actually, that is Ash," said Arceus.

Pikachu blinked. "Huh? How'd he become a Machamp?"

"That's a good question," Arceus admitted.

Pikachu sweatdropped. "Something even YOU don't know? Wow, this really MUST be a dream…okay, hang on, I'll go get him." He turned around, looked at his knocked-out trainer, and sweatdropped. "Despite him being several times my size and weight…oy."

"UM…IS THIS THING ON? SORRY, HARD TO HEAR AT THE MOMENT…ASH KETCHUM, WHO SOMEHOW BECAME A MACHAMP, HAS BEEN DEFEATED, AS IF WE ALL DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING. ARCEUS IS THE WINNER! BIG SHOCK," said the announcer, whose voice sounded oddly tinny and pathetic compared to the unarguable Voice of God. The crowd, still somewhat out of it from hearing aforementioned Voice, clapped a little. They mostly just wavered about in a daze.

"Yay, Ash lost!" Delia said giddily.

"I think the brain cancer I didn't even know I had just died," Professor Oak burbled. "Whoopee!"

"He _lost?!_" Politoed asked incredulously, he and his squad crestfallen. "But how? He had us cheering for him!"

"I always hate it when He speaks in his Big Voice," Celebi complained as she (and pretty much all the other Legendaries, save Palkia, Dialga, the psychic trio, and Mew) were still having trouble hearing and many of their heads were ringing due to Arceus' Hyper Voice attack. "The world feels all wobbly afterwards, sometimes for days on end."

"Oh, it's not so bad," Mew admonished. "Well, other than Groudon going temporarily deaf."

"WHAT?" Groudon yelled very loudly. "DID SOMEBODY SAY SOMETHING? I CAN'T HEAR ANYTHING! I CAN'T EVEN HEAR MY OWN VOICE! MY HEAD FEELS FUNNY!"

The other Legendaries groaned as Groudon's overloud shouting assaulted their brains. "Somebody shut him up," moaned Mewtwo. "He's even more annoying and obnoxious than usual." Rayquaza wrapped his tail around Groudon's neck and squeezed…and squeezed…until, face blue due to lack of oxygen, the dinosaur passed out. Everyone sighed in relief.

"Hey, how come you're not hurting like the rest of us?" Shaymin complained to Mew. "I can understand Palkia, Dialga, and those three diaper-headed weirdoes-" Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie glared at her. "-Being immune, since they were like the first of us or something. What's your excuse?"

Mew stuck her tongue out at Shaymin. "Because I'm Mew, byatch."

"I hear dat," Jirachi seconded. Shaymin fumed.

Pikachu dragged Ash over, somehow. "Uhhh…did I win?" Ash moaned, his head spinning and his eyes unable to focus.

"No," Pikachu gasped, setting Ash down. "Arceus, you're heavy…uh, My Lord, I'm not in trouble for using Your name in vain, am I?"

"No, you're good."

"Oh, thank goodness," Pikachu said, very relieved.

Arceus looked at Ash, and suddenly he was fully healed. The Machamp blinked. "I lost?"

"Yes, I'm sorry to say," Arceus said apologetically.

"But-but I transformed and everything out of sheer will and determination and stuff! You mean I didn't even land a hit?!" Ash cried, looking very upset.

"I'm very sorry, but no," Arceus apologized. "But…repeat that. You said you transformed out of sheer will and determination? Could you clarify that for me, please?"

Ash frowned. "Huh? Well…I was just horrified that I had lost, I guess. And I didn't feel like I'd done everything I could. So…I resolved to try harder. And I did. I tried with every fiber in my being, and…and I transformed."

"Just like that?" Arceus asked.

"Yeah, I think so," said Ash with a nod.

"So, you're saying you transformed by _willing_ yourself to transform?" Arceus pressed.

"I…guess so," Ash said, not really seeing where this is going.

Arceus nodded. "Fascinating. If that is the case, then I believe you deserve this more than anyone else."

And suddenly, Ash was holding the Pokemon Master Badge. He gasped. Pikachu gasped. His mom and Professor Oak gasped. The Legendaries gasped. Kyogre inhaled too much soda by accident and started choking. "Wait…what?! But…but I _lost…_"

"You did indeed," Arceus agreed. "But you did something that no human has ever done, ever. _Two_ somethings, actually. One: you surprised Me. Arceus, who knows all and sees all. The last time I have been surprised was…well, a very long time ago, and not by a human. The fact that you could do this is truly something commendable and worth recognizing. Of equal import is the fact that, through determination, stubbornness, and sheer force of will, you were somehow able to channel your desire to win into changing your entire _species…_under nothing but your own brainpower! No human in this universe has ever managed to attain such a feat! This speaks volumes for the kind of person you are, and for what lies inside your heart." He looked kindly into Ash's eyes. Ash saw…entire universes in the god's eyes. "While you may have lost, the level of dedication and determination to yourself and your Pokemon which you have demonstrated today is truly equal to that of the greatest of Pokemon trainers. While you may have lost, what you have done proves, beyond all doubt, that you are truly a Pokemon Master. And so, I bestow upon you this badge. Take it and honor it, Ash Ketchum, for you have truly earned it."

There was a long moment of silence as everyone processed this. And then…

The audience started cheering. The Legendaries started cheering, even the ones who had been against Ash.

Well, except for Mewtwo. "Wait, so He's giving Ash the badge because he made a good try?! That's bullshit! He's just getting the badge out of charity, like how he got half the badges in Kanto, and one or two in Johto-" He was silenced due to being buried underneath an enormous amount of garbage.

"Then…I'm a Pokemon Master? I'm really a Pokemon Master?" whispered an astounded Ash. "After all this time, I finally did it?!"

"That's right, Pikapi! WE did it! And about time, too! I half-expected to be dying of old age by the time we made it!" Ash frowned at him. "That wasn't a disparagement of your skills, just an observation. You know, since I have a shorter lifespan than you do."

Ash blinked. "You do?"

Pikachu rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm a rodent. Duh."

"Actually, your lifespan is quite a bit longer than you might expect," Arceus interjected.

Pikachu blinked. "It is?"

Arceus nodded. "Let us just say that you are a…very special Pokemon.

"YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! ASH KETCHUM OF PALLET TOWN IS NOW THE YOUNGEST POKEMON MASTER IN WORLD HISTORY! LET'S GIVE IT UP FOR HIM!" The crowd cheered and applauded again, and Ash truly understood then that he was victorious.

"Way to go, honey!" Delia cheered from the stands.

"Yes, even though you earned it by breaking the laws of science and biology and basically getting Arceus to feel generous towards you, well done!" Professor Oak added.

"Ash, Ash, you're our man! You do the stuff that nobody else can! In losing, you got a big sweet badge! Who else can say they…um…cadge? Hey guys, what the heck rhymes with badge?" Politoed asked his squad. They shrugged.

"Wow…" a stunned Ash whispered, looking around to see everyone, millions of people, most of whom he didn't even know, cheering for him. There was only one thing missing from this scene to make to absolutely perfect…

"Ash?" a familiar voice inquired.

Ash turned around. His eyes bulged as he saw the very…shapely new form of Misty Waterflower. "Misty?!"

"Congratulations." She drew him into an embrace and a very long, passionate kiss.

The audience went 'awww.' People drew closer to each other, touched by the moment. Couples kissed and hugged. Palkia and Dialga glanced at each other, raised their eyebrows, then shrugged and shuffled a little closer to each other. Kyogre glanced at the unconscious Groudon and rolled her eyes. The legendary birds looked like they were going to kiss, but then decided to beat each other up instead. Regigas grabbed his little buddies and hugged them tightly, much to their discomfort. Latias kissed Rayquaza, who blinked in surprise and pleasure. Mew hugged and kissed Celebi…and Jirachi…and Azelf and Mesprit and Uxie…and Lugia…and Mewtwo, who screamed in terror and ran away as fast as he could. Darkrai kissed…Giratina?

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?!" Cresselia shrieked, irate.  
"Being random and spontaneous," Darkrai told her, letting a horrified Giratina go. The pure evil ghost dragon proceeded to throw up. "It's my hallmark."

Pikachu rolled his eyes. "FINALLY!"

Arceus nodded in agreement. "Yes, it's about damn time. I thought they'd never get around to doing it."

…

Ash was not the only trainer about to win a great victory or undergo a startling transformation. May and Dawn were in the middle of their big contest battle, and their emotions were flaring high as they put everything they had into commanding their Pokemon to do their fighting for them in a stylish and pretty manner. And, since the judges had spontaneously decided to make it a double contest battle, that meant the two Coordinators had to stretch their minds to the limit to think of techniques and strategies to use that fully relied on both their Pokemons' abilities.

And so they faced off, May's Blaziken and Beautifly against Dawn's Empoleon and Buneary. Those were the only Pokemon either trainer could use, since Pachirisu, Munchlax, and Eevee had vanished mysteriously, Squirtle had chickened out at the last minute and run away to cry in a corner because he was afraid of all the people in the stadium, and Skitty had passed out from exhaustion due to chasing her tail in circles so much. They were far from evenly matched, though; May's Blaziken was the most experienced and powerful Pokemon on stage, whereas her Beautifly was kind of weak and out of practice due to hanging out at Petalburg Gym with May's mom for the last year or so. However, they were both more experienced than Dawn's Pokemon, who were still relative newcomers to the Contest world. It didn't help that Empoleon was still fairly new to being fully evolved and had little idea of what he was doing or how much power he had, but at least Buneary seemed to be on her A-game since she wanted to win or at least do really well in the Contest to make her trainer proud and maybe even impress Pikachu.

The fight had already gone on for two minutes, with three remaining, and their scores were surprisingly even. (May would have had more points, but her Beautifly messed up a trick since she wasn't used to fighting again, what with being stuck in Petalburg Gym for the last year or so, and wound up getting wrapped up in her own Silk Shot string.) That meant either Coordinator still had a chance at winning the title. "Empoleon, use Aqua Jet on Blaziken! Buneary, use Ice Beam on Empoleon!"

Empoleon covered himself in a shell of water and shot towards Blaziken. "Ha! This'll turn out much better than when that jerkass Buizel tried it! Since I'm a penguin, I've got no problem with cold!" His boast seemed to prove true, when Buneary hit him with her blue-white Ice Beam and froze him solid, he continued hurtling forwards like an icy torpedo, rather than passing out and falling to the ground like Buizel did when Arceus froze him.

"Blaziken, melt that ice missile with Overheat! Beautifly, use Silver Wind to fan the flames and make a stronger attack!" May countered.

Blaziken's wrists burst into flame as her face turned red, and she spat out an unbelievably powerful stream of fire. Beautifly swooped down over the firespout and beat her wings rapidly, firing silver energy blades into the flames and causing them to become more powerful, with the edge added from the Silver Wind to boost the damage it could cause. The flames engulfed poor Empoleon, immediately melting his ice shell and causing him heavy damage as he was burned alive and bombarded with Silver Wind blades.

Dawn gasped. "Oh no!"

Johanna groaned and put her face in her hands. "Oh dear…I knew I was right to worry…"

"Go May!" Norman cheered.

"Way to go, honey!" Caroline added.

"YAY, NORMAN'S DAUGHTER!" Norman's fanclub shouted.

"Meh, nothing we haven't seen before," Max said, rather bored.

The giant television display showed Dawn's points going down significantly. "Uh-oh, it looks like Dawn's in some serious trouble! And more to the point, so is Empoleon! Can anybody say, 'roast penguin'?"

"AAAAAHHHHH HOT HOT HOT HOT!" a severely burnt Empoleon screamed as he ran about with his tail on fire, flapping his flippers frantically. Mercifully, Buneary put out the flame with another Ice Beam, bringing the poor penguin some relief. "Ah, thanks."

Much to both Coordinator's surprise, May's points went down a little. "Huh? Why'd I lose points?! I pulled off a successful attack!" May cried.

"True, but the way Dawn's Buneary put out the fire was very stylish!" explained Mr. Contesta.

"Yes, it was remarkable!" agreed Mr. Sukizo.

"A fine example of how a Pokemon's attack can be used in a functional manner," Nurse Joy added.

May's eye twitched. Norman's fanclub booed. Johanna sweatdropped. "Wow…the judges were a lot tougher back in my day."

Marian sighed. "Wow, sure is easy to impress the judges…er, I mean, a brilliant performance from Dawn!"

"Huh? Oh, uh, I mean, thanks!" Dawn said, waving at the judges and audience, slightly confused.

"_I'm_ the one who thought of doing that, don't I get any credit?" Buneary asked bitterly.

"Well, _I_ thought it was pretty good," Empoleon said. He glanced mournfully at his tail, which was still burnt and shorter than it used to be, which had been pretty short already. "Even though my poor tail will never be the same…"

"Blaziken, let's try and keep from losing any more points! Use Blaze Kick and Fire Spin to create a spinning flaming drill kick attack!" May commanded. "And Beautifly, use Gust to send your Stun Spores over to the other side of the field to paralyze Empoleon and Buneary!" Beautifly shook her wings, causing some of her scales to fall off in a glittering yellow cloud, then flapped her wings to blow them towards a worried Buneary and Empoleon. Blaziken leaped into the air and shot down at her opponents with a flaming kick, which she powered up by exhaling a spiral stream of flame which wrapped around her body and caused her to start spinning and throwing off embers. The judges (and Norman's fanclub) 'oohed' and 'aahed', and Dawn's points went down. The young Coordinator's face paled, the attack hadn't even hit yet and it was already costing her!

"Buneary, quick, use Ice Beam to freeze the Spores! And Empoleon, use Whirlpool!" Dawn ordered.

Buneary spat her Ice Beam at the cloud of Stun Spore, literally freezing it in its tracks and causing it to rain down on the battlefield like a sparkling shower of diamond dust. The judges liked it a lot. May's points took a hit, though she didn't lose as much as Dawn had to Blaziken's spinning Blaze Kick. Meanwhile, Empoleon raised his head and managed to form a giant spinning waterspout over his head, which he threw at Blaziken. "What, trying to put me out? My Blaziken's way too hot!" May taunted, not actually sure if this was the case.

Dawn smirked. "Put you out? Oh no, that's not what I'm going to do…Buneary, use Ice Beam on the Whirlpool!" Buneary immediately complied, and the big waterspout froze solid…and Dawn's points went down? "Huh?! What'd I do?!"

"You used Ice Beam three times in a row," Mr. Contesta complained. "It shows unoriginality and a lack of imagination."

"Most unremarkable," Mr. Sukizo agreed.

"Can't you use something else, for a change?" Joy asked. Dawn facefaulted.

Johanna shook her head in exasperation. "Those idiots…"

However, it was quickly proven that Dawn had known what she was doing. The flaming spinning Blaziken shot into the whirlpool…and, rather than shattering it like she had expected, found herself sliding around the interior, caught up in the frozen waterspout's inner curve. "What the…whoooooaaaa!" she cried as she slid around and around. Her heat and flaming aura caused the ice to melt around her the faster she spun, but that didn't stop her from sliding around in circles and making May's points just keep dropping and dropping, causing the Roselia-attired girl to scream in dismay. It kept going like this until finally the frozen whirlpool melted completely and collapsed upon itself, dousing Blaziken and putting out her flame. "Uhhh…dizzy…" the damp and dazed chicken moaned.

"Ha! Take that!" Dawn cried as May's points decreased further, until they were lower than her own, which were pretty low to begin with.

"Nooo! Blaziken!" May cried.

"Oh dear…" murmured Beautifly.

Caroline gasped. "Oh my!"

Norman shook his head. "This doesn't look good…"

"Wow, that was cool! Er, I mean, oh no, poor May…" Max said without emotion.

"NOOOO! NORMAN'S DAUGHTER!" Norman's fanclub screamed.

Johanna sighed in relief, and nodded. "Well done, Dawn…"

"Well, it looks as if Blaziken is out of the running! With that brilliant maneuver, Dawn may have just pulled off the winning move in this high-stakes battle!" Marian exclaimed.

"Simply spectacular!" said Mr. Contesta

"Remarkable!" added Mr. Sukizo.

"I hope that poor Blaziken will be all right…" said a concerned Nurse Joy. "They don't like getting wet, the sweet dears."

"It can't end like this," May said desperately, noticing that her time was almost up. "I can't lose, not again, not again, NOT AGAIN!"

And then, without warning, in a flash of light the Roselia costume she was wearing became the real deal. She was a humanoid Roselia. Her skin was green, her nose had vanished, three giant thorns were sprouting from her hair, her feet had shriveled away to nothing and left her legs as curvy, delicate roots, her clothes had turned into a leaf blouse and skirt, and big red and blue roses had budded up around her wrists. Everyone gasped. May looked down at herself and screamed. "What…WHAT'S HAPPENED TO ME?!"

Beautifly's eyes bulged. "Okay, maybe I've been eating too much nectar…"

Dawn's jaw dropped, and her Pokemon gaped. "Whoa…"

Norman's fanclub fell upon itself in confusion. Some of its members cheered awkwardly, not sure what was going on, while others immediately decided to form a May fanclub, since she was now apparently hot and wore less clothing than before and was therefore more deserving of a fanclub than she was before.

"Our daughter's…a Roselia?!" Norman cried out in disbelief. Caroline's eyes rolled up in her head, and she fainted.

"Wow, that was unexpected…hey, why am I a Pichu?" asked Max, noticing that he was, indeed, a Pichu. Norman noticed this as well, gasped, and fainted. Max sweatdropped.

"Well…this is a surprise!" Marian stammered finally, as stunned as everyone else. She glanced behind her. "And it looks like it's had a negative affect on Dawn's score!"

Dawn gaped as she watched her points dwindle away to almost nothing. "Wh-WHAT?! NO WAY!"

Empoleon and Buneary's jaws dropped. "Holy crap."

"Why am I losing points?!" Dawn demanded of the judges.

"She transformed into a Pokemorph before our eyes! We've never seen anything like it before!" Mr. Contesto explained.

"Yes, it's remarkable!" Mr. Sukizo agreed.

"And a miracle…or impossibility…of biology! I find myself fascinated, and want to know May's secret! How did you accomplish this transformation?" Nurse Joy asked.

May sweatdropped. "Well, I don't actually know…but however it happened, now I'm going to win! FINALLY, I'm going to win!" She laughed a little crazily.

"Nooooo!" Dawn cried, stamping her feet in dismay as she looked desperately at the clock. "I was so close! SO CLOSE!"

"Muhahahahaha! Better luck next time! Or the time after that, or the time after that, or the time after THAT…" May giggled, nearly drooling with joy at how close she was to victory.

Johanna sighed and shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry dear, but that's just the way it is…you work as hard as you can to win, but then your opponent pulls off something impossible and ridiculous that immediately wins the judges over, and that's curtains for you. Pokemon Contests can be very dark and gritty and disappointing, beneath all the ribbons and color and glitter…"

As Dawn sagged, noticing that she was almost out of time, and she began to despair, something amazing and unexpected happened. Well, okay, you probably saw it coming, but regardless…

There was a sudden flash of light, and her costume became reality too, and Dawn transformed into a humanoid Buneary. Her feet had become long, flat, and yellow, (splitting open her shoes and socks) her legs were brown, shapely, and heavily muscled (ripping open her pants—though thankfully, there was a big mass of fluff covering her stomach and nether regions that looked almost like a skirt), the rest of her body was covered in brown fur, her chest size had increased (though thankfully, her shirt was still intact, if a bit ruffled, wrinkled, and stretched out), her eyes had become big and brown, her nose had shrunken to become a pink button on her furry face, and a pair of long brown bunny ears with fluffy tips poked out of the top of her blue hair. In other words, she'd become a bunny girl…though thankfully, without the scanty clothing. (Well, aside from the lack of pants.)

There were more gasps of shock and disbelief from the audience, as well as a couple of nosebleeds due to her pantlessness. Johanna stared incredulously, equal parts amazed and appalled (she had never thought her daughter would become one of those women you usually saw in dirty magazines!). Empoleon fainted from amazement, while Buneary glanced back from her trainer's figure to her own, and fumed somewhat enviously. Max wolf-whistled, for she did indeed look a little like the women he had seen in the magazines he wasn't supposed to know about stashed away in his family's attic.

May's eyes shrunk, and every muscle in her body stood out as she tensed significantly. Her reason why could be seen if anyone pulled their eyes off Dawn and looked at the scoreboard, May's points had gone down now, and she and Dawn now had the exact same equally low score! "NO! YOU RIPPED OFF MY MOVE! YOU SHOULD BE DISQUALIFIED FOR THAT!"

"I-I didn't mean to!" Dawn stammered. "I'm just as surprised as you are!"

"Well, this is certainly something I've never seen before," said a stunned Marian. "TWO Coordinators just transforming for no reason in the same battle?!"

"May didn't lose as many points as Dawn did when May transformed because we've already seen this move before," Mr. Contesta said dismissively. "While it is rather impressive, I'm not that impressed by copycats."

"It is quite remarkable, though," Mr. Sukizo pointed out.

"Yes," Nurse Joy said, a greedy look in her eyes. "I'd love to look at them back at my Pokemon Center to see how they both did that…"

"Do something! Quick! Change back!" May yelled at Dawn.

"I can't! I don't know how!" Dawn protested.

"Then we're BOTH going to-" May started to say when the clock ran out and a loud buzzer rang throughout the stadium.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we've run out of time! And, since both our Coordinators have the EXACT same score due to this astounding physical transformation…this match ends in a draw! Judges, do you have any idea on how to break this deadlock?" Marian asked the judges.

The judges glanced at each other. Shrugged. "Bikini mud wrestling?" Mr. Contesta suggested. He received quite a few death glares at that, although a rather disturbing amount of the audience seemed to agree with him. "It was just a thought…"

"It would have been remarkable, though," Mr. Sukizo said wistfully. Marian's eye twitched, as did Nurse Joy's. Johanna put her face in her hands. Max found himself concurring with Mr. Sukizo.

"Well, in that case, I guess BOTH coordinators are the winners, and have won the title of World's Finest!" Marian declared. Rockets streaked up into the sky and exploded into beautifully colored fireworks as the very confused audience cheered and random confetti started raining down on them. "Congratulations, May and Dawn! You are the greatest coordinators in the world, and the youngest to ever win this competition! Well done, the both of you!"

Max clapped eagerly. Johanna glanced at her Glameow, shrugged, and clapped as well. "Well, at least she didn't lose…"

May and Dawn looked at each other in horror. "YOU MEAN WE HAVE TO SHARE THE TITLE?!" they both screamed.

"And the prizes!" Marian said cheerfully as a large platform with a big _something_ covered under a shapeless tarp was wheeled over. "Don't worry, I'm sure it'll all divide evenly! Though I guess we'll have to cut the ribbon in two…" May and Dawn both groaned miserably at this. "In any event, here are your prizes! The commemorative ribbon, the lifetime supply of Pokeblock and Poffin, and the complete set of evolutionary items!" Marian whipped the tarp off the platform to reveal…

An extremely fat Snorlax, snoozing happily and covered with crumbs, an open and very empty case that had once contained something, a charred blast mark on the ground, and a Glaceon. Everyone gasped. "Wh-where are the prizes?!" Marian cried. "And who let that Snorlax and Glaceon in here?!"

Dawn groaned. "Oh no…don't tell me!"

"MUNCHLAX! Er, SNORLAX! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" May screamed at the Snorlax, who promptly woke up.

"Huh? Oh, hi," Snorlax said with a yawn, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes…not that you could tell. "I miss something?"

"Yes! Like the whole damn CONTEST! And me turning into a human Roselia for some reason…" May complained. "Explain yourself! How did you evolve? Where are the prizes?! And is that Eevee over there? How did HE evolve?!"

"And where's my Pachirisu?" Dawn demanded.

"Oh. The prizes. Um…I ate them," Snorlax confessed.

Everyone's jaws dropped. "ALL OF THEM?!" May shrieked.

"What? No, just the Pokeblock. And the evolutionary items. And the ribbon." Snorlax smacked his lips. "They were delicious."

"He ATE the ribbon?!" Marian cried in disbelief. "This has never happened before!"

May groaned. "You've never met my Snorlax…"

"Yeah, it's a good thing I managed to snatch up one of those items to use on myself before he ate them all," Glaceon groused. "But at least now I'm a super-cool Glaceon! Isn't it awesome?"

"You weren't supposed to use any of those until AFTER we won the contest!" May yelled.

Glaceon shrugged. "Yeah, but we didn't know you'd win. Figured it'd be safer just to go out and take them while they were still available, rather than wait to see if you won or lost."

"You didn't wait to see if…don't you guys have any faith in me?!" May demanded.

"No," said Snorlax.

"Not really," said Glaceon.

May facefaulted. Max laughed. Beautifly sweatdropped. "Oh dear…"

"But that still doesn't explain WHAT HAPPENED TO MY PACHIRISU!!!" Dawn yelled.

"Oh, she exploded," said Snorlax.

"She EXPLODED?!" Dawn screamed.

Snorlax nodded. "Yep, she ate all the Poffin, and got so excited and energized and hyperactive that she lost control of herself and…well, popped."

"It was really freaky," commented Glaceon. "She was squealing at an incredibly high ear-splitting pitch and vibrated like crazy…then she vibrated faster and faster and faster until…well, she went pop in a flash of light and was gone."

"Yeah, a real shame," Snorlax commented. "I'll miss the little guy. She could eat even faster than I could. And she looked tasty, even if she was kinda scrawny."

"I don't believe this!" Dawn cried.

Buneary shook her head. "I always knew she needed better control of herself…too late now."

Marian sighed. "Well, ladies and gentlemen, I guess this contest battle ends with a downer…with no prizes to commemorate our coordinators, it's like they didn't win anything at all! Like this whole thing was just a big waste of time!"

"Don't you at least have some prize money to give us?" May begged Marian.

Marian glanced at the judges, who shook their heads. "I guess not. Sorry."

May slid to the ground and moaned. "This sucks! I'd almost rather lose than win like this…"

Dawn joined her on the ground. "We got nothing for our troubles other than a random transformation, and now my Pachirisu is dead! How could this possibly get worse?"

Naturally, it did. Snorlax belched, and several colored energy beams shot out at odd angles and struck random members of the audience, causing them to transform into humanoid Pokemon in flashes of light. "Whoops, sorry," he apologized as the audience screamed, scratching his tummy. "Been getting weird gas ever since I ate those evolution thingies." He belched again, and more beams shot out and struck Marian and the judges. "Oops, there I go again. Sorry."

"AAAHHH!" Marian screamed. "I'm…a very beautiful and attractive Gardevoir. Okay, this actually isn't so bad…"

"Well, I suppose this explains how May and Dawn were changed into Pokemon creatures in the first place," Mr. Contesta, who was now a Mr. Mime, deduced. "Consuming all those evolutionary items at once must have not only triggered Munchlax's own evolution, but created a chain reaction in his stomach which makes him evolve, or rather 'transform', random people into Pokemon-like creatures every time he burps!"

"I'm not sure that makes any sense at all, but it's remarkable all the same!" said Mr. Sukizo, who was now a Swinub.

"Does this make me look fat?" asked Nurse Joy, who was now a Chansey, glancing down at her very stretched-out dress. The other judges wisely did not reply.

"Well, I guess that's how things can get worse," Buneary said as her trainer panicked. "Hmm, if I get hit by one of those beams, do you suppose I'll evolve? Or get the same figure Dawn has?"

"Could work," Glaceon said, trotting over. "Could also turn you inside out…maybe. Who can tell?"

Snorlax belched again, and more people transformed. The audience was screaming and scrambling out of their seats for their exits, shoving and pushing each other over in their frantic flight, and causing many injuries to themselves and each other. And, naturally, since everyone was moving towards several small points (exits) from just about every direction in huge masses, they got bottlenecked and didn't move very much. It only got worse when Snorlax kept burping. "URP! Sorry. URP! Sorry. URP! Sorry."

"Snorlax, cut it out!" May yelled.

"Sorry, I-URP!-can't. This stuff's really not-URP!-agreeing with me. Ugh…looks like I'm never eating this junk ever again. URP!" He turned green. "Ooohh…I don't feel too good. URP!"

May immediately backpedaled away from her giant Pokemon. "If you're going to throw up, do it away from me!"

"Sorry, but-URP!-I think it's coming out the other end." He bent over, sticking his rear into the air. Everyone screamed and tried to run away…and then…

PHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There was an incredible burst of Technicolor light in all the hues of the rainbow, covering the entire stadium.

There was also a very disgusting stench.  
After that, there was only silence.

…

Brock fidgeted. His bride, clad in a beautiful white dress but still a complete mystery to him, stood only a couple of feet away from him. "So," he said awkwardly. "Um…could you take your veil off for a second? You know, so I can see your beautiful face before we…" The bride shook her head. "Oh. Never mind."

"Don't you know, son, you're not supposed to see the bride in her dress before the wedding!" Flint reminded his son.

"But…this _is_ my wedding," Brock pointed out.

Flint thought about that for a moment. "Oh. Good point."

The Archbishop of Kanto ran into the room, nearly tripping over his robes in the process. "Sorry I'm late, everyone, I was ministering a wedding in another dream and things ran on a bit longer than I expected."

"Um, it's okay…" Brock frowned, looking at the odd bloodshot look in the priest's eyes. "Are you high?"

"What? No, don't be preposterous, I'm the Archbishop of Kanto! And if you ever suggest such a thing again, I'll excommunicate you," the Archbishop threatened. Brock swallowed and shut up. The priest took his position before the couple. "Ahem. Dearly beloved…wow, pretty small crowd here. Where's the bride's family?"

"Couldn't make it," said Sudowoodo apologetically. "The bus they were taking broke down and sunk into a bog."

"Oh, that's a shame," said the priest, not looking like he really cared, while Brock wondered why the bus would have been anywhere near a swamp. "Oh well. Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join these two lovers in holy matrimony."

"Um, sorry to interrupt, but…just who am I marrying, exactly?" Brock said anxiously.

Sudowoodo laughed and punched Brock on the shoulder, nearly breaking the young man's arm. "Don't be silly, Brock, you know _exactly_ who it is!"

"Ow," Brock whimpered.

The Archbishop continued. "Brock Slate, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, through sickness and health, through good times and bad, till death do you part?"

"Well, I guess I would, if I knew who she was…" Brock said uneasily, glancing at his bride with trepidation.  
"She's the love of your life, your soulmate, the most beautiful woman you've ever known, etc, etc, typical stuff," Flint told him.

"Oh, really?" Brock asked, perking up. "Well, in that case, hell yes!"

"And you, young lady, do you take this ridiculously horny man here to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, through sickness and health, through good times and bad, till death do you part? And just so you know, that doesn't give you license to kill him if he cheats on you. Not that I wouldn't _blame_ you for doing it, but the law tends to frown on that sort of thing." Brock gulped, but his bride took it in stride and nodded. "Does anybody here see any reason these two should not be wed?" Geodude raised a hand, and the Archbishop scowled. "It was a rhetorical question."

"But if Brock gets married, he won't be a swingin' bachelor like us anymore!" Geodude protested.

"He'll also never get laid," Steelix reminded him.

"Oh, good point. Never mind then."

The priest rolled his eyes and tried to finish the ceremony. "Then I declare you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride."

The bride turned to him. Brock slowly leaned towards her to remove her veil…

When suddenly the chapel doors slammed open, nearly giving Brock a heart attack, and the bride's family came in. "Sorry we're late, everyone!" a very large Toxicroak said as he walked into the room with a big fat Politoed at his side. "The bus broke down, so we had to hop it here, so to speak!"

"I hope we didn't miss anything!" the Politoed said as she and the Toxicroak moved up the aisle, followed by a very large procession made up of dozens of Poliwag, Poliwhirl, Poliwrath, Croagunk, one Seviper, a gang of Muks, a giant Venusaur and a bunch of Ivysaurs and Bulbasaurs, a few Beedrill, some Krabby, a few Woopers and Quagsires, a bunch of Mudkip, Marshtomp, and Swampert, a couple of Lotads, and a pair of very, VERY large Feraligatr with smaller Totodile and Croconaw hanging onto them. "We brought the whole extended family, the neighbors, and a few friends of ours to see this, our dearest child getting married."

Brock turned pale. "Wh-what the heck?! Who're they?!"

"Why, they're the bride's family, Brock, who else would they be?" asked a puzzled Sudowoodo.

"Yeah, who were you expecting, some ugly-ass humans?" asked Marshtomp. "Speaking of which…some of those Pokemon over there look pretty hot…" He made suggestive eyes to some of the Marshtomp sitting down across the aisle, and they giggled. "Rowr!"

"We _are_ pretty ugly, aren't we?" Forrest asked thoughtfully.

"Yes, dear, you are. It's your father's genes," Lola said apologetically, patting her son on the head. Flint scowled at this.

Brock's face paled. "But…but wait! If THAT'S your family, then you must be…"

The bride nodded and lifted her veil, revealing…Croagunk. "Yep. Expecting somebody else?"

Brock started screaming. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO—wait, how'd you fit into that dress? You're kind of short…"

"I'm wearing very high platform shoes," Croagunk explained.

"Oh, all right. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

"Wait…I'm confused," said Forretress. "I thought you were a guy! Does this mean…gasp you're GAY?!"

"And does this mean I have two daddies?!" asked a very disturbed Happiny. "That's kind of weird…"

Croagunk shook his/her/its (?) head. "No, I can change genders at will. It's an amphibian thing. And a frog thing."

"Ohhh," everyone on Brock's side of the room said.

"That—that's even grosser than the possibility of you being gay and in love with me! Wait, which are you now?" asked Brock desperately.

"Can't you tell?" Croagunk asked. Brock flushed, reluctant to admit that he indeed could not. (Well, it's not like there's much sexual dimorphism in Croagunk, or most other Pokemon for that matter, anyway.)

"This is all very lovely, but could you two kiss already? I have another wedding I need to get to in half an hour," the Archbishop said, glancing at his watch.

"But-but I don't _want_ to kiss or marry Croagunk?!" Brock protested.

"Of course you do. I'm your soulmate. And one true love," Croagunk croaked.

"You're a _POKEMON!"_ Brock pointed out.

"So? Since when does your soulmate have to be of the same species as you?" Croagunk pointed out.

Brock hesitated. "That's…actually a good point, but doesn't that generally just apply to different kinds of Pokemon? I mean, marriage—er, mating—between two different species of Pokemon is fine, but...a Pokemon and a human? That seems kind of…icky…"

Croagunk nodded sagely. "Ahhh, then you mean you _didn't_ feel attracted to any of the Gardevoir, Jynx, or other attractive female humanoid Pokemon you've come across?"

Brock sweatdropped. "Um…not so much, no…" He was lying, and they both knew it. "I didn't even know you liked me, to be honest."

Croagunk blew out his…her?...cheeks and stared at Brock. "Why do you think I attacked you and dragged you away every time you started hitting on another woman? I didn't want anyone but me getting a piece of you."

Brock's eye twitched. "That's…equal parts flattering and totally disgusting."

Croagunk shrugged. "I suppose it is. Now pucker up and kiss me, loverboy."

Brock grimaced. "Do I really have a choice?"

"Well, you already _said_ you would marry me, but if you're that much against it, I suppose I could let you back out. My family will probably eat you, though," Croagunk said wistfully.

Brock's face paled. "E-eat me?!"

"Yes, they're wild swamp Pokemon, and back in the bayou it's customary to eat any human stupid enough to wander in or piss you off-"

Croagunk was interrupted midsentence when a terrified Brock kissed him/her/it. Both their families cheered. Flint started sobbing big unmanly tears of joy, causing the Rock Pokemon to flinch and edge away from him so they didn't get eroded to death by his weeping. "At last, my son is a MAN!"

"And at last, my kid's married too! Hoo-wee! Looks like this calls for a hoe-down!" Croagunk's Toxicroak parent pulled out a banjo as some of his relatives and friends took out other makeshift remedies and started playing a bizarre tune which had all the marsh Pokemon dancing and shouting and passing around drinks while everyone else gave them confused looks.

Brock broke the kiss first and stumbled backwards, a stricken look on his face, and then collapsed on the ground, trembling all over and pretty much totally paralyzed. "Well, that new wife of Brock's is one hell of a kisser!" Lola said with a laugh.

"Actually, Mom, I think he's been poisoned…" Forrest corrected her. "He DID just kiss a venomous frog, after all."

Lola frowned. "Oh…that's a good point."

"He'd better get used to it," Geodude quipped as Croagunk shed his/her/its platform shoes and dress and dragged Brock away by the leg to begin their honeymoon out back. "There's going to be a lot more of those in his future."

"Aw, that's so sweet…well, time to go on my blind date!" Sudowoodo left the church.

"Some guys get all the luck, right Ludicolo?" Forretress asked the dancing pineapple. There was no response. "Ludicolo?" The weird barnacle creature turned around to see that Ludicolo, Marshtomp, and Crobat had joined in on the crazy dancing and already seemed to be cozying up to some of the more attractive members of Croagunk's extended family. Forretress fumed. "Figures. Those guys get all the women."

"Yeah, why isn't anyone ever interested in us?" Steelix, the giant socially awkward very loud metal snake with bad breath asked.

"And wasn't Brock supposed to transform into something?" Geodude asked.

"Huh? What gave you that idea?" Forretress queried.

Geodude shrugged. "Dunno…was just a thought."

Steelix shook his head. "That sorta thing only happens in lousy fanfics."

"This was not the wedding I had expected," Happiny complained. "Nothing like the ones on TV. Oh well, at least I have a new mommy…or second daddy…or something. That's better than nothing." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "I wonder what my new brothers and sisters will look like…" Everyone nearby started wondering the same thing, and gagged at the imagined possibilities.

One of the Feraligatrs ate one of Brock's myriad siblings when no one was looking, figuring nobody would miss the kid. It was right.

The Archbishop sighed and started taking big puffs off his freshly lit cigar. "I'm getting too old for this shit."

…

After valiantly defeating the ninjas, Spy Duck waddled at his fastest speed, which wasn't very fast at all, through the door after Giovanni and his beloved. After taking out a few more of the crime boss's heavily armed goons, the secret agent found himself in a huge silo that had apparently been annexed to the casino when nobody was looking. The silo contained, not a missile, not a spaceship, but a giant robot! (Which probably could shoot missiles and fly into space, so he supposed it counted for all three.) Giovanni, Persian, and a goon clutching a struggling Wigglytuff were entering the robot through a hatch in the side of its head, accessible by a scaffold which…collapsed the instant the villains were inside the mecha and the machine roared to life.

"YOU'RE TOO LATE, SPY DUCK!" Giovanni's amplified voice boomed from the robot's speakers. "MY ULTIMATE WEAPON, THE ROBO-ROCKET MK XXIX, HAS BEEN COMPLETED! AND WITH IT, I SHALL DESTROY THE CITY, THEN THE WORLD! BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Rockets ignited in the robot's feet and metal wing-like protrusions, and it blasted off, rising out through the opening at the top of the silo and into the night sky. "WIGGLYYYYYYYY!" Wigglytuff screamed, also through the speaker, as the robot flew off.

Spy Duck stared blankly after the robot for a moment. Then he held his head in both hands, tilted it to the side, and went, "Psy-ai-ai-ai-ai!" Canned laughter played. Then he leapt into action. He jumped into the air, a streaked dramatic background rolling behind him, and flung off his tuxedo, revealing that underneath it he was wearing a spandex gaily colored costume. He made a series of complicated hand movements, and suddenly a visored helmet with a shiny angular crest dropped out of the sky and clamped down over his head. High-pitched voices were singing a god-awful melody in the background reminiscent of old Super Senshii transformation sequences while this was all going on. "MEGARANGER SPY DUCK!" a random voice bellowed loudly when the 'transformation' was done and Spy Duck struck a stylish pose.

"Duck!" Leaping impossibly high into the air (or was he being lifted by a cable?) Spy Duck jumped out of the silo and landed on top of a nearby skyscraper just in time to see Giovanni's Robo-Rocket Mk XXIX begin devastating the city with its advanced flashy weaponry, which caused cheesy overexaggerated explosions as they blew apart the oddly flimsy-looking buildings.

"MUHAHAHA! NOTHING CAN STOP ME NOW!" Giovanni bellowed madly from the controls of his robot.

Spy Duck made a series of dramatic hand motions, then pointed an arm straight up into the air. His super-cool Spy Gizwatch (which would be retailed, mass-produced, and sold to kids all around the world as cheesy, poorly-made toy watches with functions that didn't work and had the potential for causing lead poisoning) flashed, and an even super-cooler giant robot that looked like a Golduck) wearing shogun armor (which would also be retailed, mass-produced, and sold to children all over the world as cheesy toy robots with flashing lights and spring-loaded missile launchers that could poke somebody's eye out) swooped down out of nowhere and landed right next to the building Spy Duck was standing on, shaking the pavement. Spy Duck leaped impossibly high into the air and somehow landed in the cockpit of his robot. Making some more dramatic hand motions, the secret agent took the controls of the mecha and started it stomping towards Giovanni's Robo-Rocket Mk XXIX.

Giovanni paused in his rampage when he noticed Spy Duck's mecha. "What? Spy Duck?! Is that you? In the legendary Kaiser Quackquack robot, no less! Incredible!"

"Wigglytuff!" Wigglytuff squealed, overjoyed to see her lover had come to her rescue.

The Robo-Rocket Mk XXIX flexed its arms, and Giovanni laughed. "Your robot may be powerful, Spy Duck…but its might pales in comparison to mine!" Persian hissed.

Spy Duck quacked, unimpressed. "Psy."

Giovanni scowled. "Is that all you have to say? Well, then, let us do battle…and I'll show you firsthand why Team Rocket will rule the world!"

One five-minute long super-flashy robot battle with tons of special effects that took place in a big foresty area out in the middle of nowhere, rather than in the city, for some reason…

"Ugh! Aahh! Noooo!" Giovanni cried in dismay as his robot thrashed and shook about, wracked by explosions. "Curse you, Spy Duck, you've defeated my robot!"

"WIGGLY!" Wigglytuff cheered, clapping with joy, ignoring Persian's annoyed snarls.

"Psy-ai-ai-ai-ai-duck!" Psyduck quacked triumphantly as his robot struck a stylish pose.

"Don't think this is over…" Giovanni growled. "If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me!" He thrusted his mecha forward, causing it to charge across the battlefield and wrap its arms around the startled Kaiser Quackquack, holding it tight in an ironclad grip.

"Wiggly!" Wigglytuff gasped.

"Psyduck?" Spy Duck asked blankly.

"Once I activate my robot's self-destruct, it'll destroy both of our machines, and you and your girlfriend as well!" Giovanni explained, laughing maniacally.

Wigglytuff cried out. "WIGGLYTUFF!"

Giovanni's minion gasped. "But boss, that'll kill us, too!"

"Of course it won't, I have an ejection seat!" Giovanni argued.

"But _I_ don't!" the minion protested.

"So?" Giovanni asked with a casual shrug. He pressed a button, causing the lights to dim to red, klaxons to blare, and a timer to start counting down. "In fifty seconds, you'll be history! What do you have to say to that, Spy Duck?"

Spy Duck held his head in both hands, tilted it slightly, and stared blankly at Giovanni. "Psy-ai-ai-ai-ai!" Canned laughter played. Then Spy Duck leaped into action, literally, smashing through one of his mecha's eyes and flying across to Giovanni's, breaking through the Robo-Rocket Mk XXIX's visor and landing in Giovanni's cockpit!

The evil mastermind gasped. "What?! NO! STOP HIM!"

"I'll get him, boss!" the minion said, lunging at Spy Duck. The secret agent ducked, and the minion flew out the broken visor and plummeted to his death. "WAAAAAHHH!"

"Don't think this is over, Spy Duck!" Giovanni exclaimed, as Persian leaped into his lap and the villain triggered his ejection seat, which launched out of the cockpit through a hole in the ceiling and rocketed off into the distance. "We will meet agaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiin!" He and Persian vanished in a twinkle.

"Wigglytuff!" Tears streaming from her eyes, Wigglytuff ran towards Spy Duck in dramatic slow motion as romantic music played.

"Psyduck." Arms spread wide, Spy Duck waddled towards her.

They accidentally ran past each other, fumbled around, tripped a few times, then managed to join together in an embrace. Well, Wigglytuff embraced Psyduck anyway, very tightly to her chest, his arms didn't reach very far and he was sort of plastered against her bosom. (Not that she had any.)

"WARNING. THE ROBOT WILL SELF-DESTRUCT IN TEN SECONDS. WARNING. THE ROBOT WILL SELF-DESTRUCT IN TEN SECONDS," a loud computer voice said, snapping them out of their reverie. Spy Duck grabbed Wigglytuff and leaped out of the robot, landing on top of a nearby clifftop just in time to turn around and watch it explode spectacularly, sending up streamers which exploded again and created beautiful fireworks in the sky.

"Wiggly," whispered an awed Wigglytuff.

"Psy," Spy Duck agreed.

Slowly, with the fireworks and a big bright full moon serving as a backdrop, they turned to face each other. Even more slowly, they leaned towards each other and melded into a kiss…

Or tried to. Spy Duck's beak got in the way.

That didn't stop Wigglytuff from ripping off Spy Duck's spandex outfit and having her way with them then and there, much to the disgust and horror of Spy Duck's boss The Chief, the gadget guy Agent 69, Spy Duck's receptionist Miss Hunnybunny who was madly in love with him, and Spy Duck's young ward Jimmy and his pet Mankey Mr. Bojangles when they came by a few hours later to find out why Spy Duck hadn't reported in after defeating Giovanni.

"Oh my," gasped The Chief. "I…really did not have to see that."

"Woo! Way to go, Spy Duck!" Agent 69 cheered.

"Oh, SPY DUCK! WHY?!" Miss Hunnybunny wailed as her heart was broken for, like, the 758th time.

"Mr. Bojangles, what are they doing?" young Jimmy asked innocently. Mr. Bojangles shrieked with rage and viciously attacked him. "AAAHHH! NOT THE FACE, NOT THE FACE!" Screaming as Mr. Bojangles clawed and bit at him, Jimmy staggered backwards and fell off the cliff to his death, screaming all the way down. Nobody noticed or cared. Wigglytuff and Spy Duck continued having hot, steamy, very intimate sex.

Spy Duck looked up from his lovemaking long enough to stare at The Chief blankly, hold his head in both hands, and go, "Psy-ai-ai-ai-ai!" Canned laughter played. Then the credits rolled.

The lights came on in the theater, and the audience to the very first Hollywood screening of ultrafamous movie star and action hero Psyduck's latest picture, _Quack Another Day,_ produced by Clevon Schpielbunk, who had exclusive rights to making all movies starring Psyduck, burst into applause. Psyduck, sitting in the front row next to the pearl-adorned Wigglytuff, quacked and held his head, which throbbed as everyone clapped and clapped and clapped. Wigglytuff, his costar and actual girlfriend, purred and snuggled up to him, clearly amorous after watching herself have sex with Psyduck on film (Something that, freakily enough, they had not faked for the camera, they had had actual sex during that part. Schpielbunk would have cut it out, but they didn't have any more film and were already seriously over budget, so he had no choice but to run with it anyway and use creative editing to make it not look so bad. That, along with lots of bribery and begging, had been all that got the movie aired at all rather than canned for violating FCC regulations.) and in the mood for more of the same. Psyduck, whose head was hurting already, wasn't sure if he was in the mood for that.

To make matters worse, an obnoxious reporter appeared and stuck a microphone in his beak. "Psyduck, your latest movie in the _Spy Duck_ series may be your best yet, according to critics! Not only that, it's predicted to make you a net of fifty _billion_ dollars once it's viewed by the rest of the public! Not only that, we hear you and your long-time girlfriend Wigglytuff are finally getting married! What do you have to say to all your fans around the world for this momentous occasion?"

Psyduck's eyes started glowing an ominous blue as his headache reached its peak. "Duck." Everyone and everything in the room (except for Schpielbunk and Wigglytuff, who had buckled themselves into their chairs just in case something like this happened) was abruptly lifted off the ground and hurled about. There was much screaming and defecating a breaking of bones, but when it was over and everyone was lying on the ground moaning in pain Psyduck felt a lot better…and naturally, didn't remember anything he had just done. Wigglytuff sighed and shook her head.

Schpielbunk got out of his seat, walked over, and sighed as well. "Psyduck, bubby, you know I love you and respect you and all, but you've really gotta stop doing that. It's bad for business, and we get more lawsuits that way."

Psyduck stared at him blankly, held his head in both hands, and tilted it to the side. "Psy-ai-ai-ai-ai!"

Canned laughter played, and Wigglytuff and Schpielbunk laughed as well. "Oh, you crazy duck, you," Schpielbunk said fondly, wiping away a tear. "That's why we love you! Nothing can beat that brilliant charm and sparkling wit of yours."

"Duck," said Psyduck, picking his nose.

…

Sudowoodo tapped his foot as he waited patiently. He was sitting at a table in an outdoor cafÈ, waiting for his blind date to show up. He checked his watch. Frowned. Started tapping a little faster. His date was late. Very late, in fact.

He sighed, his frustration giving way to disappointment. It figured. Of _course_ he'd get stood up. He was Brock's Pokemon, after all. Then again, Brock _had_ just gotten married a little while ago, and some of the other Pokemon _had_ looked like they were going to score with some of Croagunk's relatives…

But nevertheless, his date was very late, and he was starting to think she wouldn't show up. With a weary sense of resignation, he slid his chair out and started to get up…

When Blaziken showed up. "I'm very sorry I'm late," she panted, sitting down opposite from him. "Something _really_ nasty happened at the arena, and I had to shower and preen multiple times before I thought I smelled good enough to make it. I almost didn't come at all, but May and the others encouraged me too, so…"

Sudowoodo was surprised. He sat back down. "Blaziken? You're my blind date?"

"Apparently. And you're mine," Blaziken agreed. "Certainly wasn't expecting you, no offense."

"None taken, I wasn't expecting you either," said Sudowoodo. He glanced around and signaled a waiter to come over and take their orders. "So, now that you're here…I hope you don't mind explaining what happened to delay you? Sounds like a rather interesting story…"

Blaziken shook her head ruefully. "You have no idea. You have _no _idea…" She told it to him, as they waited for and received their dinners. Sudowoodo's reaction to the whole thing was hilarious. Then they started talking about other things; their trainers, their hopes, their dreams, their personal lives, etc. And, after a while, they realized they were enjoying themselves.

They certainly wouldn't mind seeing each other again in the near future.

…

"And now, after that ridiculously long commercial break, welcome back to _Who's Your Daddy!_" Chet Dabra said, giving the studio audience and viewers around the world a winning smile. The audience cheered, and canned applause played. "When we left off, Azurill and her mother were confronted with the three men who may or may not be Azurill's father! Now that the break's over, we've gotten back the DNA test results which will tell us conclusively who the father is!" He turned to the three males, who fidgeted in their seats nervously as spotlights focused on them. "Who could it be? Is it…Ash's Totodile, a fine young reptile with a penchant for dance who's apparently had a crush on Marill for quite a while?" Totodile and Marill both blushed. "Or perhaps it's Ash's Bulbasaur, a legendary peacemaker currently in a long-term relationship, though maybe not for much longer if he really IS Azurill's father!" May's Bulbasaur glared at him, and Ash's Bulbasaur gulped. "Or _maybe_ it's the legendary Manaphy, Prince of the Sea, who nobody's heard of before now!"

"Bite me," Manaphy said curtly.

"No thanks, I'm allergic to seafood. Now!" Chet said, as a stunningly lovely assistant handed him a sheet of paper. "The test results are in! And the father iiiiiiis…." He glanced at the paper. Did a double-take. Looked at it again. Frowned. Coughed. "Manaphy, who cruelly took advantage of an already inebriated Marill at a party out of frustration for being banished to the past (briefly) by Celebi!"

The audience, and everyone else, gasped.

"Well, at least it isn't me…" said a relieved Ash's Bulbasaur with a sigh.

"Oh no…" whispered Totodile, looking horrified.

"I'm the dad? Huh. Didn't see that coming," a surprised Manaphy said.

"No! Not you! I didn't want it to be you!" cried Marill, starting to tear up.

"Me neither! I don't want you to be my father!" Azurill yelled.

Manaphy shrugged. "Too bad, kiddo, genes are genes, there's no arguing about it. Well, guess I'm going to have to take you away to my underwater Temple of the Sea now, since you _are_ my kid and all…"

Marill gasped. "What? But I don't wanna go with you! I want to stay with Mommy, and Misty!" Azurill protested.

"You don't really have a choice here, kid. Those broads aren't fit for you. Especially after I turn you into the Phione you're supposed to be, rather than the freaky-looking Azurill you are now," Manaphy said.

More gasps. "A Phione?!" Marill shrieked.

"I don't wanna be a Phione! I'm happy as an Azurill!" Azurill protested.

"Wait, can you do that? Actually _turn_ her into a Phione?" asked a startled Chet.

Manaphy grimaced. "Well, not transform _her_ so much…I don't have the ability to do that, that's more Mew or one of the other bigshot's province. But I _can_ use my Heart Swap ability to transfer her consciousness into one of the mindless Phione husks I have wandering around all over the temple—kids from previous, ah, engagements that didn't quite work out—and then she'll be a Phione and we'll live together, just the two of us, father and daughter."

The audience gasped. "That's _disgusting!_" Bulbasaur shouted.

"No way!" yelled Totodile.

"I don't wanna switch bodies!" cried Azurill.

"I'll never let you do that to my daughter!" Marill said determinedly.

"I don't think you really have a choice here, babe. I _am_ the father, after all. And a Legendary Pokemon, at that! The others'll back up my claim on Azurill, sure enough!" Manaphy sneered.

"You mean the same Legendaries who did nothing to stop Celebi from sending you back in time for hitting on her lewdly?" Chet asked.

There was a pause. Manaphy flushed. "Yeah…well…fine, then we'll take it to court, have a big custody battle! I can afford the best lawyers in the world with all the money I got lying around in my temple, what've you got? A no-good idiot wannabe artist of a trainer who barely has two cents to rub together working for an aging, nearly senile Professor? It'll be easy to prove that _I_ have the kid's best interests at heart, _and_ can provide for all her needs, so _I_ deserve custody of her!"

"Wh-what?! No…no judge would ever let _you_ have my daughter!" Marill said angrily.

Manaphy laughed. "Oh yeah? You pay attention to the news at all? You'd be _amazed_ the kinds of people who win custody battles these days…and besides, if I _don't _get her, who's gonna provide for everything she needs? She has my DNA in her too, you know. When she evolves, if I'm not there to help, weird things are gonna happen to her. You think you'll be able to take care of that on your own? Without somebody who has the slightest idea what's going on, who can keep your precious baby from getting hurt by the changes her body will put her through?"

Marill paled at this. Azurill glanced at her anxiously. "Ch-changes? _Hurt?_ Oh…oh dear…"

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Manaphy sneered. "You don't have a clue what to do! If I don't help the kid out, who will?"

"I will!" Totodile yelled suddenly, startling everyone. He stood up from his seat, looking more serious than anyone could ever recall seeing him. "I'll…I'll do it! I'll take care of them! I'll help Azurill through whatever changes she's going through! I'll be there for her and her mother, because…because I love them both, and I'll do anything to help them!"

The audience gasped. Chet raised his eyebrows. Bulbasaur was impressed and privately relieved he didn't have to do anything. Marill gasped and looked at Totodile with new eyes. "Totodile…"

"I always wanted him to be my daddy," Azurill confessed.

Manaphy laughed. "Oh, give me a break? _You?_ Your trainer's even stupider than Marill's, and probably even poorer! You don't have a clue how to take care of a kid, let alone one who's going to be going through the changes Azurill will! You're gonna come crawling to me, begging for help before all this is over!"

"No, I won't!" Totodile shouted. "You're right, I may not have any idea what I'm doing, but I love and care about them, something _you_ could never do, so that'll have to count for something!" Totodile pointed at himself with a thumb. "I'll take care of them! I'll be the husband and father they need! And you…you can just go crawling back to whatever pond scum you spawned from!"

The audience 'oohed', and then burst into applause, heartily approving of Totodile's determination and decision. Manaphy bristled, clearly displeased with how this was going. "You wanna make a federal case outta this? FINE! I'll see you in court! My lawyers will eat whatever attorneys you can scrounge up for breakfast! And then, the kid'll be all mine-"

He was interrupted when an anvil fell from the ceiling and crushed him flat. There were a number of gasps from the shocked audience. Marill, Azurill, and Totodile stared at the anvil covering all that was left of Manaphy in disbelief. Bulbasaur edged away, terrified by how close the weight had come to falling on him. "Oh my! What a TERRIBLE accident!" Chet cried, not sounding very worried or surprised at all. "Who could have foreseen that that anvil would fall right where Manaphy was sitting just as he was about to make his exit and ruin this new family's life? Certainly not I!" He surreptitiously threw a pair of scissors he was hiding behind his back away. "But, now that he's dead, it looks as if there's no obstacle to this family having a happy new life together! Congratulations!"

A spotlight shone down on the startled and confused Totodile, Marill, and Azurill as the audience applauded. "Um…Manaphy's dead…yay?" said a confused Totodile.

"Yay! My old daddy is dead! Now I can have a new and better daddy!" Azurill squeaked, bouncing on her tail.

"Totodile…did you mean what you said back there? About how you cared about us and would take care of us?" Marill asked the blue lizard.

"Of course I did," Totodile said softly. "How can I not? You have to know by now how I feel about you, and Azurill too. I'll do everything in my power to protect you. I promise…"

Marill teared up again. "Oh…Totodile!" Bursting into tears of joy, she hugged him. The audience 'awwed'.

"Isn't that wonderful, folks? And to help this little family start their new life, they will receive one million Pokedollars, a mini-yacht, and a lovely villa on the beach where Azurill can grow up in safety and happiness!" Chet announced.

"We will?!" Marill cried happily.

"Sure! You'll have a little place of your own! It'll be great!" Chet promised.

"Uh, do I get anything too?" Bulbasaur asked as the ecstatic Water trio celebrated.

"Are you somebody's father?" Chet asked him.

"Uh, no."

"In that case, no. Get out of here." Bulbasaur scowled and walked away as Chet addressed the audience. "And so it looks like everybody gets a happy ending! Well except for Manaphy, and that Bulbasaur guy. But if you think this was a great show, wait'll you see next episode, where we resolve once and for all to discover the truth of Ash Ketchum's parentage! Was he created by a Legendary Pokemon? Is he a Team Rocket experiment? Is his father Professor Oak, or Giovanni, or Lance, or Bruno, or any other number of trainers who we have and have not heard of? Is he, in fact, an alien? Find out next time, on _Who's Your Daddy!!!_"

The audience cheered, the lights dimmed, and the show came to a close. All in all, it had been a good episode, even though they'd probably have to explain to the other Legendaries why, exactly, one of their own was now dead. But it's not like they really _cared_ much anyway. It was only _Manaphy_ who died, after all. Not like anyone'd miss him, right?

…

Phantasma smiled and nodded. "Well, I think I like the way this has all turned out. Now…time to wake them up and let them see how all their dreams have come true!"

And so the spell was broken, and the dreamers awoke.

…

When Ash woke up, he found himself staring into Misty's beautiful face. "Hello," he said.

"Hi," she said back, smiling peacefully at him.

There was a moment's bliss. And then…

"AAAHHH! YOU'RE A MILOTIC!" Ash screamed, recoiling from Misyt.

"AAAHHH! YOU'RE A MACHAMP!" Misty screamed, recoiling from Ash. Their screams woke everyone else up, and caused them to yell as well as they recalled their dreams and saw their new reality.

"AAAHHH! I LOST TO ARCEUS!" Buizel wailed.

Ash's other Pokemon sweatdropped. "You say that like we should be surprised…" Pikachu muttered.

"Do you think Paul's actually dead? Or did I just dream-kill him?" Chimchar wondered.

"Let's hope it was just a dream, I think they put down Pokemon who murder their trainers…" Turtwig said nervously. "At least, that's what I hear. Hey, do you think I'm still in the Brotherhood of Badass?"

"I don't think such a thing exists," Staraptor said apologetically.

Turtwig sighed unhappily. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"AAAHHH! I ATE MISTY'S SISTERS AND THEY TASTED AWFUL!" Gyarados bellowed tearfully.

"Big shock…" grumbled Corsola. "At least you remember _having_ a dream, I don't think I had any at all! Other than something about Psyduck and a movie…"

"Psy?" Psyduck asked, looking at her blankly and looking oddly dapper in his tuxedo.

Corsola sweatdropped. "No way…"

Politoed glanced around. "Hey, where'd my cheerleading squad go?"

"AAAHHH! MANAPHY'S MY DADDY!" Azurill screamed. "…But he got squished, and I have a new daddy now, so I guess everything's okay."

"AAAHHH! I'M A ROSELIA!" May screamed as she woke up. "AND I DIDN'T BECOME THE WORLD'S TOP COORDINATOR, AND MY SNORLAX ATE ALL THE PRIZES, THEN FARTED ALL OVER US!"

"AAAHHH! I'M A BUNEARY!" Dawn screamed as she woke up. "AND I DIDN'T BECOME THE WORLD'S TOP COORDINATOR, AND MY PACHIRISU EXPLODED, AND THEN MAY'S STUPID SNORLAX ATE ALL THE PRIZES AND FARTED ALL OVER US!"

"Sorry…" Snorlax mumbled. "I'm feeling better now, though."

"That's wonderful," Glaceon said sarcastically. "Well, at least I'm still a Glaceon."

"I was a total wuss back there," Squirtle whined. Then he noticed he was a Wartortle. "Huh? How'd this happen? Cooool…"

"It looks as if Snorlax's fart released a blast of evolutionary energy strong enough to make all of us evolve," Skitty, who was now a Delcatty with much-increased brainpower, speculated.

"Cool!" said Beautifly. "Wait, it didn't affect me at all…oh yeah, that's because I'm already fully evolved. Darn."

"Hmm…almost a shame I evolved before the contest, then…could have gotten that free boost," Empoleon said. "Then again, I already got a free boost, somehow, so…why bother complaining?"

"Certainly not me," whispered Buneary, or rather Lopunny, as she looked over her gorgeous new form with amazement. "Wow…what'll Pikachu think of this?"

"My hat! Where'd my hat go?! And my crown?! MY KINGDOM?!" Ambipom shrieked. "NOOOOO! DON'T TELL ME IT WAS ALL JUST A DREAM!"

"AAAHHH! I HAD A DATE WITH SUDOWOODO AND ENJOYED IT!" Blaziken shouted. She blushed as everyone stared at her. "Er, whoops?"

"You say that like it's a bad thing…" Sudowoodo muttered, insulted.

"AAAHHH! I'M MARRIED TO CROAGUNK!" Brock screamed as he woke up. Everyone stared at him. "What? I am! See, I have a wedding ring and everything…wait…AAAHHH! YOU GUYS HAVE TURNED INTO FREAKY…and oddly hot…monsters?" He blinked, and took another good, long look at Misty, May, and Dawn. They glared back at him, and then Croagunk Poison Jabbed him, causing him to collapse in a paralyzed heap.

"Honey, no looking at other women now that we're married," Croagunk croaked to him, a wedding ring quite visible on one of its fingers.

"Yes…dear…" Brock gasped, twitching.

"AAAHHH! CROAGUNK'S MY MOTHER, ER, SECOND FATHER, ER…What the heck are you?" Happiny asked timidly.

"Your parent of indeterminate gender," Croagunk said.

"Oh, great, that's a big help," Happiny said sarcastically.

"AAAHHH! I'M A HIDEOUSSS MONSTER!" Jessie screamed as she woke up. "AND SSSEVIPER'S _GAY!_"

"Well, _excussse_ me if that'sss a problem," hissed the offended serpent.

"AAAHHH, I'M ON FIRE!" James screamed, waking up. "Oh, wait, I'm not…but…AAAHHH, I'M A PLANT-THING, AND THE ARCHBISHOP OF KANTO MARRIED ME TO MY POKEMON!"

"We love you, James!" Carnivine, Victreebel, and Cacnea all said as they hugged and/or tried to eat him.

"Chiiiiii!" chimed Chimecho.

"This is so weird…" murmured Mime Jr.

"AAAHHH, I BECAME A VIOLIN, AND THE BOSS PLAYED BEAUTIFUL MUSIC ON MY INNARDS!" Meowth shouted as he woke up. "Oh, wait, I'm okay…but…AAAHHH, JESSIE'S UGLIER DEN USUAL, AND DA TWERPS HAVE ALL CHANGED INTO FREAKY STUFF TOO!"

"Hey!" the twerps in question yelled back at him, offended. Jessie burst into tears, or tried to, but she no longer had tear ducts so just sat there looking miserable.

"AAAHHH, I'M A PICHU!" Max yelled. He paused. "Wait, what the heck's a Pichu, and why am I surprised to be one? For that matter, who am I? Where am I? How did I get here? Who the heck are you weirdoes?"

May groaned. "Oh great, and now my brother's lost his memory! How could this get any worse?!"

Phantasma sighed in exasperation and rolled her eyes. "Wow, all of you seem to be pretty good at whining…if I didn't know better, I'd say you were unhappy or something to be getting your heart's desire!"

There was a pause. Everyone stared at the oddly-colored Mismagius with the unmistakable aura of power that they had only just noticed floating nearby.

"AAAAHHH! MONSTER!" Team Rocket screamed, hugging each other in fright. Or at least they did until Jessie's poison spines pricked them, and they yelped and let go of her. Phantasma's eye twitched.

"Oh great, this explains everything…" Dawn groaned.

"Huh?" said a confused May. "What do you mean?"

"The last Mismagius we ran into trapped us in a dream world and tried to give us everything we desired…until we tried to wake up, and then it attacked us," Ash explained.

"And then it turned into a Rayquaza/Mismagius fusion, which was…pretty cool, actually," Empoleon confessed. "And it chased us around."

"And then we somehow became giant Pokemon and defeated it," Pikachu finished. "And it let us wake up."

"Ah," said Misty. By the confused looks on her face, May's face, and pretty much everyone else who hadn't run into that Mismagius' faces, they hadn't quite gotten it.

"Man, that was a nice dream," Brock said with a sigh. "All those Joys and Jennies in love with meeeEEEAAAUUUGGHHH!" he screamed as Croagunk Poison Jabbed him.

"No thinking about other women, sweetie, we're married now," Croagunk croaked.

"Yes…honey…" Brock gasped, twitching in paralysis.

"Dawn and Ash are right, I am behind this," Phantasma said. "Let me explain. I happen to be the Mismagius trapped in the Dark Stone you were all fighting over earlier…"

"What?!" At that, all the good-guy trainers and their Pokemon were up on their feet. "Then if you're that evil Pokemon, we have to stop you!" said Ash.

"Yeah, from destroying the world, or…something!" said Dawn.

Phantasma sweatdropped. "Er, wait a minute…"

"Or from throwing everyone into a horrible nightmare world like the ones you flung us into!" May agreed.

Phantasma's jaw dropped at that. "Nightmare world?! Why I never-"

"And we have to catch you, for the boss!" James cried, pointing dramatically at what he thought to be Phantasma…and instead poking Jessie in the eye.

"OW! Jamesss, why'd you do that?!" she hissed angrily.

"Oh, sorry Jess, I can't really see anything that's going on with this Chimecho over my eyes," James apologized.

"Chiiiii!" chimed Chimecho.

"I have absolutely no idea what's going on…" Max complained.

Phantasma's eye twitched. "Dammit, I'm not-"

"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!" Ash commanded. "Buizel, Water Gun! Staraptor, Aerial Ace! Chimchar, Ember! Turtwig, Energy Ball!"

"Gyarados, use Hyper Beam! Corsola, Politoed, Water Gun! Psyduck…uh…just stand there and do nothing, I guess," Misty sweatdropped.

"Psyduck," Psyduck said, nodding decisively.

"Blaziken, Overheat! Glaceon, Delcatty, Ice Beam! Wartortle, Water Gun! Beautifly, Silver Wind! Snorlax, Hyper Beam!" May ordered.

"I'm really not in the mood right now," Snorlax said, lying down. "Think I'm gonna take a nap…"

May facefaulted. "SNORLAX!"

"Zzzzzz…" Snorlax snored.

"Empoleon, Bubblebeam! Bun—I mean, Lopunny, Ice Beam! Ambipom, Swift! Defeat that thing, for Pachirisu's sake!" Dawn cried.

"But I didn't even _do_ anything to-" Phantasma protested.

"Seviper, Poison Tail! Dustox, Psybeam!" Jessie commanded.

"Everyone, get off me and attack that thing!" James yelled. Reluctantly, they did so.

Meowth cackled and rubbed his paws together gleefully. "With all dis firepower, dere's no way we're not nabbing dat evil Pokemon!"

That was the last straw. "FOR THE LAST F-ING TIME, I'M NOT F-ING EVIL!" Phantasma bellowed as she lost her temper, pulses of magical energy washing off her and repelling the attacks coming towards her as the darkness writhed angrily behind her. "IF I KNEW THAT THIS WAS WHAT I WAS GOING TO GET FOR TRYING TO BE NICE AND GIVING THE PEOPLE WHO F-ING LET ME OUT OF THAT DAMN PRISON IN THE FIRST PLACE, THEIR HEART'S DESIRE, I'D HAVE JUST GOTTEN THE HELL OUT OF HERE AND LEFT YOU ALL TO YOUR STUPID, UNALTERED DREAMS!" They stared at her, terrified, as her eye twitched, a vein throbbed on her head, and dark flames burned all around her. "WELL? ANYONE ELSE GOT SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT HOW _EVIL_ I AM?!"

"Ahem," Cynthia said, putting her hand on the Mismagius' shoulder (?) and breaking through her rage. "Would you mind if I handled this? They might be a little more responsive to a familiar face."

Phantasma sighed and backed off. "Fine. Go ahead. Lousy ungrateful little…" she grumbled under her breath.

"Yay, it's Cynthia! She's here to save us-AAGGHH!" Brock gasped, as Croagunk Poison Jabbed him again. "I wasn't…hitting on her!"

"No, but you were thinking about it," Croagunk pointed out.

"Wow Daddy, looks like your marriage is going perfectly, it's just like Uncle Brock and Aunt Misty's relationship!" Happiny chirped.

"WE'RE NOT IN A RELATIONSHIP!" Ash yelled reflexively…and noticed Misty wasn't echoing him. She was glaring at him, in fact. "Er…wait, are we? Sorry, I'm kind of new to this…"

"Yeah, it's rather telling…" she said coolly.

"Okay, let's take this from the top," Cynthia said, trying to calm everyone down. "Phantasma, here, despite what the stories say, is _not_ an evil Pokemon."

"She's not?" everyone asked.

"No, I'm fucking well not!" Phantasma yelled, frightening them. "My good name was besmirched and maligned by the idiots who locked me up because they thought my brand of ghostly mischief and pranks had malevolent and malicious intent, when all I was trying to do was have a little fun and make people happy! Or scare them a bit. Depending on whether I liked them or not."

"Well, if your average prank was anything like this, no wonder they thought you were evil…" May muttered.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Phantasma bellowed, her head ballooning up to gargantuan proportions and thrusting into May's face. She screamed and fell over. Buizel laughed. Team Rocket would have, too, if they weren't terrified.

"Phantasma, you're not helping," Cynthia warned the Mismagius.

"Oh. Sorry." Somewhat embarrassed, the ghost resumed her regular size.

"Right. Anyway, Phantasma was released during your battle against Team Rocket by Pikachu…" Cynthia continued.

"Something for which I will be eternally grateful," Phantasma told Pikachu, who blushed, causing Lopunny to get a little angry.

"And she decided to reward everyone who had played a part in her release by granting them their heart's desire. And, since all of you were sleeping, she figured the best medium to grant those desires would be through your dreams," Cynthia finished.  
"Ohhh," everyone said, finally understanding. Or at least, they thought they did.

"Wait, but I didn't want to be a Machamp, or get beaten up by Arceus," said a confused Ash.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure _none_ of us wanted to get beaten up by Arceus," Pikachu said. The other Pokemon nodded. "Well, except maybe Buizel."

"No, I wanted to _beat_ Arceus," Buizel corrected. Everyone rolled their eyes.

"I guess I _did_ want to kill Paul, though," Chimchar admitted.

"And I wanted to become a Staraptor, and that came true," agreed Staraptor.

"But I didn't want to become a Milotic," commented Misty.

"And I _certainly _didn't want to become some weird Roselia thing!" May agreed.

"Same here!" said Dawn. "We both wanted to become the world's greatest Coordinator!"

"And I most definitely did _not_ want to marry Croagunk!" Brock said, holding up his ring finger and displaying the wedding band on it.

"I wanted to marry you," Croagunk croaked.

Brock sweatdropped. "That's…great Croagunk, really it is."

"_I_ didn't want to become a monster!" Jessie shrieked.

"Me neither!" added James.

"And I didn't wanna become a violin!" Meowth wailed. "It really hurt, ya know!"

"And I didn't…um…actually, I have no clue what I wanted, because I can't remember who I am," Max complained. "Can somebody help me out here, please?"

"I granted _essentially_ what all of you wanted, give or take a bit here and there, with some modifications…" Phantasma explained. "I mean, it was hard to cram everyone into the same dream and get everything they wanted without a little conflict or spillover. That's why all of Ash's Pokemon and Ash himself were beaten by Arceus, because Ash wanted to become a Pokemon Master and Buizel wanted the strongest opponent there was."

Ash's jaw dropped. "Wait, then you're saying…if Buizel hadn't wanted to fight someone strong, we might've gotten to fight someone who wasn't as tough that didn't beat us all into the ground!?"

Phantasma nodded. "That's right."

Buizel sweatdropped and laughed nervously as Ash and all his Pokemon gave him death glares. "H-hey, cut it out you guys, how was I supposed to know that would happen? And hey, why didn't I get to _beat_ Arceus? Wasn't _that_ part of my heart's desire too?"

"Yes, but if I made you defeat Arceus in a dream I crafted using magic, the real one would be very displeased," Phantasma explained. "Plus, I thought you needed a lesson to deflate your ego." Buizel blanched. "That's also why you couldn't defeat him either, Ash. I would have gotten in trouble. And realistically, there's no way you could ever, _ever_ defeat Arceus, no matter how strong a trainer you become. He's God, after all."

"Amen to that," Pikachu agreed.

"Oh," said a disappointed Ash. "Wait, does that mean my fight with him didn't mean anything, since it was a dream?"

"You still have your badge, don't you? Then it counted for something," Phantasma explained.

"Sweet!" Ash cried, holding his badge in the air. "Now I'm a Pokemon Master!"

"Yeah, by losing a match to Arceus, who felt sorry for you and gave it to you out of pity," Buizel said sourly.

Ash's face fell. "It wasn't like that."

"_Suuuure_ it wasn't," Buizel said sarcastically.

"Uh, am I still part of the Brotherhood of Badass?" Turtwig asked hopefully. "I mean, I'm not sure it actually exists…"

"It does now," said Phantasma.

"BOOYAH!" Turtwig cheered.

"Hey, one other thing. Why am I a Machamp?" asked Ash.

"Only way to impress Arceus," said Phantasma.

"Oh. Okay."

"Um, not that I'm complaining, but why am I a Milotic?" Misty asked.

"You wished to be beautiful, and to be with Ash. I granted both desires," Phantasma explained. Ash and Misty flushed, and everyone else snickered at them.

"She wished to be beautiful? How shallow," Buizel sneered.

"Oh shut up, nobody cares what you think," Pikachu said to him. The otter scowled.

"I ate Misty's sisters. Did that actually happen?" Gyarados asked.

"No, they're still alive…though they'll have nightmares of being digested by you," Phantasma told him.

Gyarados nodded. "Okay. I can live with that."

"Does that mean Paul will have nightmares of me taking bloody vengeance on him, too?" Chimchar asked. Phantasma nodded. He grinned evilly. "Excellent."

"Wait, will Tyson have nightmares of me killing him?" Pikachu asked uneasily. "And…did he _really_ give Meowth performance-enhancing drugs, or…"

"No, that's just you and Ash's subconscious explanation for how you were beaten by a Meowth, just like how that dream version of Harrison represented Ash's subconscious explanation for why he lost the Johto League," Phantasma explained.

"Ah," said Pikachu.

"Oh," said Ash, fidgeting uncomfortably.

"Is Manaphy really my father?" Azurill asked the ghost.

"Manaphy's your father?!" May cried.

"Yeah, but he was a jerk, and got squished by an anvil," Azurill said.

As May stammered in disbelief, Phantasma said, "Yes, he is your father, but I don't think he'll be causing you trouble anytime soon. And the prizes you received on that talk show were real too, and you, Marill, and Totodile may use them as you wish."

"Yay!" Azurill cheered, bouncing on her tail happily.

"Talk show?" asked a confused Misty.

"It's a long story," said Cynthia.

"Where's my cheerleading squad?" Politoed demanded. "I distinctly recall having them to cheer Ash on, but now…"

"They'll all wake up tomorrow morning with a deep desire to form a team under you, and travel to find you," Phantasma said.

"Oh. Sweet."

"How come I didn't dream of anything but going to see Psyduck's stupid move premiere?" asked Corsola.

"Psyduck had a movie premiere?!" everyone cried.

"Yes, he's a big star now. That was his wish," Phantasma explained.

"Duck," Psyduck said smugly to everyone's gaping stares of astonishment.

"And as to why you were there, Corsola…well, the only desire I could find for you was for Psyduck to either learn how to swim. Or die. That's pretty much all you wanted, since you seemed rather content with your life as is," Phantasma continued.

"And how does seeing that movie grant that desire?!" Corsola demanded.

"He swam in part of it. Remember? The bit where he needed to dive down to find Giovanni's undersea base?" Phantasma reminded her.

Corsola paused in thought for a second. "Ohhh…now I remember. I thought that was a stunt double."

Phantasma shook her head. "This is Schpielbunk Productions we're talking about. They don't have the money for stunt doubles."

"Point." Corsola was mollified, but still a little miffed. It was understandable, nearly everyone else had gotten great wishes granted, all she got was to see Psyduck swim.

"Why didn't I get to become the world's greatest Coordinator, though? And why am I a Roselia?!" May demanded.

"And why didn't _I _become the world's greatest Coordinator, and why am I a Buneary?!" Dawn demanded. "And why is Pachirisu dead?!"

Phantasma rolled her eyes. "You _both_ wanted to be the world's greatest Coordinator. There couldn't really be two, so I had to…fudge it a little to make the compromise work. Now you two share the title."

"But we don't even have the ribbon to show for it!" May protested.

Snorlax burped and suddenly spat up the special commemorative ribbon. "Well, it's there now, if you want it," Phantasma said.

May and Dawn sweatdropped. "Um, no thanks, we'll pass…"

"But you still haven't explained why we're Pokemon-things!" Dawn exclaimed.

"Oh, and what happened to my brother? Why can't he remember anything?!" May demanded.

"I'm your brother?" said a confused Max. "But you're not even of my species…I think that guy is. Hey, are you my dad?" Pikachu, to whom the question was being addressed, sweatdropped.

"Blame Snorlax," said Phantasma. "He wanted a big meal, and he got it. How was I supposed to know he'd eat the evolutionary items, causing a metabolic reaction that gave him the power to make people 'evolve' or 'transform' through burping?" May and Dawn glared at Snorlax, who grinned sheepishly. "I'm afraid that it's also his fault Max is like this…one of his initial burps transformed him from a human into a Pichu, but that giant bout of…indigestion he had released an incredible burst of evolution radiation that _would_ have evolved him into a Pikachu…if his father, Norman, hadn't transformed into a Slakoth and fallen on top of him, absorbing the brunt of the explosion and causing the rest that filtered through to…well, wipe his memory completely."

"What?!" May cried.

"Oops," said an embarrassed Snorlax.

"I was a human?" asked the confused Max. "Wait, what the heck is a human anyway?"

"Is something like that even possible?" Ash asked doubtfully.

Phantasma shrugged. "Looks that way."

"Can't you change him back?!" May begged the Mismagius.

She sweatdropped. "I'm…not sure that would be a good idea. I could turn him into a human, sure, but…his wiped mind only knows how to be a Pichu now. He would be unable to survive as a human."

"Then why don't you just restore his memory?" Misty asked.

Phantasma sweatdropped. "I'm…not very good at reconstructing memories," she admitted. "Reading them, yes, altering them, maybe, making new ones? I…never got around to learning that before I was imprisoned." Everyone facefaulted.

"Well, that's okay, I like being a Pichu. I don't really remember, but I think I wanted to be one anyway," Max said pragmatically. "So this must have been my heart's desire or something. And now I can have that super-cool Pikachu for a father!"

Pikachu sweatdropped. "But…I'm not your dad."

"You are now! I love you, dad!" Max said, hugging Pikachu. Everyone sweatdropped. "Now if only I had a mom…"

"Will I suffice?" Lopunny asked, hopping over.

"Sure!" Max said, hugging her too. "Dad, don't you think she'll make a great Mom?"

Pikachu stared at Lopunny, who had to be the absolutely most beautiful Pokemon he had ever seen for a long moment. "Guh!" His brain hemorrhaged and he passed out, blood gushing from his nose.

Everyone sweatdropped. "Pikachu!" Ash cried, starting towards his friend.

"No, Ash, it's all right, that's a typical male reaction to an exceptionally beautiful female," Brock told him.

"Oh, okay," Ash said, calming down but still looking very confused.

"Oh my…" whispered an embarrassed Lopunny, flushing.

"I think we're going to be a very happy family, aren't we Mom?" Max asked Lopunny.

She smiled at him. "Yes dear, I think we are."

"Awww, isn't that sweet?" Phantasma cooed.

"Yes, it is, except THAT'S MY BROTHER! WHAT'M I GOING TO TELL MY PARENTS WHEN THEY ASK WHERE HE IS?! THAT HE WAS TURNED INTO A PICHU, LOST HIS MEMORY, AND DECIDED TO ADOPT PIKACHU AND LOPUNNY AS HIS PARENTS?!"

"Oh, no problem, I'll just give you a replacement brother!" Phantasma said.

And in a puff of smoke and a flash of light, Meowth became an exact replica of Max. Well, Max as a human, anyway. Team Rocket and everyone else gasped. "Aaaahhh! My eyes! I'm blind!" Meowth shrieked.

"That's because you're not wearing your glasses," Brock said helpfully.

Meowth put them on. "Oh, thanks--AAAHHH, I'M A HUMAN! WHAT'D I DO TA DESERVE THIS!? Well, except for that one thing…and the other thing…and…um…I'll shut up now."

"That'sss…that'sss horrible!" Jessie cried.

Empoleon shook his head sadly. "Yes, being turned into a human…what a horrible fate for a Pokemon." All the humans and former humans glared at him. "What?"

"Why did you make him look like Max?!" May demanded.

"So he can be your replacement brother," said Phantasma.

"…For one thing, that's just sick. And for another, my parents will never fall for it!" May insisted.

"Yeah, and I don't wanna be her brother!" Meowth complained.

"You'll get three square meals a day, a roof over your head and a family to care for you," Phantasma told him.

"I love you, big sister!" Meowth cried, hugging a disgusted May, who shoved him off.

"This is still wrong! And I repeat, it'll never work!" May repeated. "He doesn't know a thing about being Max! He doesn't remember growing up with me or our parents or anything! He can't be my brother! My parents will never believe he's Max!"

"They will if you tell your parents that he got brain-blasted by a really powerful Psychic Pokemon and so doesn't remember anything, which is why you had to send him home to be taken care of by your parents," Cynthia suggested.

"Hey, that sounds good! I like that. Let's do it that way, sis!" Meowth said eagerly.

"I'm not your sister! And even if that DID work, I refuse to do it that way! It's a perversion of everything that Max is or was!" May protested.

"I'm okay with it," said Max.

"Of course you're okay with it, you don't remember anything anyway, so you have no problem giving up a life you have no memory of!" she shouted at him.

"Yeah, that sounds about right," he agreed. "But look, girl who's supposed to be my sister, what alternative is there? I can't go back to the way I was before, Phantasma said so. If Meowth doesn't become me, then what're you going to tell your—_our_ parents? That I'm dead? That I became a Pichu and abandoned them? At least this way, they'll still have something they think is Max, that's better than nothing at all, right?"

"But it'll be a lie!" May protested.

Ash nodded. "Yeah, and all lies are bad!"

"Like the lie you told your mother when she asked if you'd been changing your underwear regularly the other day?" asked May.

"Er…"

"And the lie you told Professor Oak about how you really liked his latest haiku?" Dawn added.

"Uh…"

"Or when you told May and Dawn that you thought Pokemon Contests were really cool?" Misty said.

"Wait, that was a lie?!" May and Dawn shrieked angrily.

"Ulp!"

"And when you told Misty that that new dress she got didn't make her look fat?" suggested Brock.

"WHAT?!" Misty howled, eyes red with fury.

Ash squealed with alarm and hid behind a tree several meters away. "I think I'll just shut up now."

"Come on, big sis, it won't be so bad," Meowth said, tugging on May's arm. "In time, I'm sure you'll forget all about me not really being Max, especially if someone brainwashes you!" Phantasma shook her head. "Oh. Um…well, at least you'll still have a brother then. Who looks like Max. Or something. And that's gotta count, right? Maybe?"

May looked at him for a moment. She sighed, giving up. "Does it have to be _Meowth_, though?" May complained. "He'll probably rob my parents or something…"

"Hey!" Meowth protested.

"It's either him or Buizel," Phantasma said. Buizel's eyes bulged out in horror.

"I love you, little brother!" May cried, hugging Meowth. Everyone sweatdropped.

"Meowth, why are you abandoning us?!" Jessie cried.

"Yeah, they're twerps, and we're your teammates!" James added.

"Screw you guys, I'll take three square meals and a roof over my head to Team Rocket any day!" Meowth shot at them over his shoulder. Their faces fell.

"That's all very nice, but WHAT ABOUT MY PACHIRISU?!" Dawn yelled.

"And my Pokenip!" Delcatty whined.

"And my courage!" complained Squirtle.

"And my kingdom?!" screeched Ambipom.

Phantasma sighed. "Okay, first off, Pachirisu's not dead."

"She's not?" said a surprised Dawn.

"Taurosshit, I saw her explode myself," protested Glaceon.

"No, that's what you thought you saw. In actuality, her metabolism was so jacked-up from all the Poffin that she ate that she was able to vibrate her body fast enough to pierce the barrier between dimensions and escape into the multiverse," Phantasma explained.

"Oh," said Dawn. "So…she's in another dimension!? But how'll she find her way back?!"

Phantasma shrugged. "Interdimensional travel's not really my field of expertise. You'd have to ask an Unown about that. But wherever she is, I'm sure she's fine."

Elsewhere…

"Honey, why are you hiding in the closet?" Linda West asked her husband, who was indeed cowering in the closet, looking rather ridiculous in his red body-tight outfit. "You're setting a bad example for the kids."

"Because _it's_ out there," her husband, Wally West, also known as the superhero Flash whimpered. "You should come in here too. And the kids. It's not safe out there."

Linda rolled her eyes. "And that would be because…"

"Because of the _squirrel,_" he hissed, eyes darting about fearfully.

Linda stared at him, wondering if her husband had finally gone insane due to all the crazy stuff that happened in his everyday life as a superhero. "A squirrel."

"Yes," he said, nodding fervently. "Just this morning, I felt a disturbance in the Speed Force, so ran out to investigate. And when I got there, I found _it…_some kind of a hyperactive mutant squirrel, blue and white and capable of generating electricity, running all over the place at several times the speed of light and causing all sorts of crazy havoc around the world. So, naturally I started chasing after it, but…I couldn't. It was…it was so fast…so fast that I couldn't even catch up to it! It ran around the world ten times, _zigzagging,_ in the time it took for me to do four loops, _straight_!"

Now Linda was starting to get worried. "That _is_ pretty fast," she admitted. "So…why aren't you out there trying to figure out a way to capture that thing?"

"There's no way to," Wally said, shaking his head. "It's hopeless. I've given up and am waiting for the world to either end or for the thing to go away. Not even the Justice League can stop this creature. Superman tried, and is now in the Metropolis ICU for severe rabid squirrel bites capable of penetrating his skin. Batman tried, and nearly got eaten alive. He looked more scared than I've ever seen him before, which is, like, never. Green Lantern tried, but they overwhelmed his ring and nearly drove him insane. We're all doomed."

"Wally, don't you think you're overreacting?" his wife asked, a bit doubtfully.

"Linda, right before I gave up and hid in here, I watched the thing devour all the caffeine in every Starbucks in America," Wally said flatly. "After that, it became so fast that not even _time_ itself could contain it properly, and there were multiple electric squirrels running about and screaming, each one just a living 'second' or 'instant' of the original squirrel! And then they ran off to devour every other Starbucks and coffee place in the world. And that's when I hid in here."

Linda's eyes widened in horror. "It's becoming faster, and eating all the caffeine on Earth, which will increase its speed even further."

"Yes."

"And we haven't evacuated to the Moon because…"

Wally shook his head. "It's there too. I checked. I have no idea how, but it's on the Moon too. No place is safe. So we might as well just hide in here and wait for the inevitable."

"I'll get the kids," she said, running out of the room.

"And bring back some chips, I'm getting hungry in here!" he yelled after her.

Back with our friends…

"Okay…well…as long as she's not dead, I guess I'll just have to wait for her and hope she'll find her way home," Dawn said finally, unaware that her little Pachirisu was at that very moment growing into a threat to the entire multiverse.

"But what about my Pokenip?" Delcatty asked again.

"I don't do drugs," Phantasma said flatly. "So, I helped you evolve and become smarter and prettier, which I figured you'd like just as much."

"Oh, okay," Delcatty said, mollified.

"Drugs?" asked a confused May.

"And my courage?" Squirtle asked.

"You got your courage. You felt confident enough to go out there on the big stage," Phantasma said. "Unfortunately, your stage fright was greater than I thought…sorry."

Squirtle sighed. "Great…so I'm still a wimp."

"You sure are!" Buizel barked, until Pikachu whacked him on the head. "Ow!"

"And what about my kingdom?!" Ambipom shrieked.

"You'll never have it," Phantasma said flatly. "Other than in the world you see when you close your eyes. You can still have Ash's hat whenever you want, though."

"Hmm. I suppose that's true," Ambipom admitted. She pounced on a startled Ash, who was returning from behind the tree, grabbed his hat, and ran off with it into the forest. "Yoink!"

"Hey, come back here with my hat!" Ash bellowed angrily, chasing after her. The others sweatdropped.

"Well, she's sure entertained easily…" Misty said after a moment.

"Are there any other questions you all have about the dreams I gave you?" Phantasma asked.

"Um, yes actually. Why exactly did I get married to Croagunk?!" Brock shouted. "I certainly never desired that!"

"Actually, you desired to be a top Pokemon Breeder with a harem of gorgeous women who loved you completely and obeyed your every whim and gave you incredible sex," Phantasma said coolly. All the girls in the group glared at Brock, and he swallowed. "So, I decided to compromise by pairing you to the one female in the world (aside from your mother) who loves you unquestionably and needed little coercion to marry you, thus preventing such a horrible future from ever coming to pass."  
Brock stared at Croagunk. Croagunk stared back. "Uh, but Croagunk isn't a woman…"

"I can be when I want to be," Croagunk croaked in reply.

Everyone stared at the frog, a little disgusted. "O…kay…" Brock said after a moment. "But…even so, you're a Pokemon and I'm a human! That sort of thing isn't done!"

"Really?" asked a surprised Phantasma. "That sort of thing was actually pretty common back in my day…" Everyone else sweatdropped.

"I'm pretty sure this is illegal nowadays…" Brock complained.

"Not anymore!" Phantasma said cheerfully. "The Archbishop of Kanto did it, so that set legal precedent! Or is it religious precedent? Eh, something like that."

"But it was a _dream_ Archbishop who married us!" Brock protested, again.

Phantasma shook her head. "He'll remember it pretty vividly when he wakes up tomorrow. And the records showing he performed the wedding will remember it too, as will your family, who witnessed the whole thing. That makes it legally binding. Now any trainer who wants to can marry their Pokemon! Isn't that great?"

There were more sweatdrops all around. "Can I get a divorce?" Brock asked hopefully.

"No," said Croagunk, Poison Jabbing him.

"So, any other questions about the gifts I've given you?" Phantasma asked perkily.

Ash, coming back into the clearing dragging Ambipom by her tails and wearing his hat again, raised a hand. "Yeah, why are we still Pokemon-things again?"

"Oh, I thought it'd be neat." They facefaulted. "If it's that big a deal, though, you can switch back and forth between your regular human forms and your current appearance at will."

Relived to hear this, Ash, Misty, May, and Dawn immediately changed back to normal. Unfortunately, their clothes didn't change with them, leaving Ash only in his underwear and hat, Misty almost naked, May was _actually_ naked, and Dawn didn't have any pants. They looked at each other, screamed, and quickly ran for cover, while Brock passed out with a heavy nosebleed in combination with Croagunk Poison Jabbing him again. Phantasma sweatdropped. "Whoops…"

"Methinks you should give them some clothing," Cynthia said. Phantasma nodded and quickly conjured up fresh duplicates of the humans' regular attire, which the four kids eagerly changed into.

"I don't get what the deal with humans and clothing is," Sudowoodo complained. "Wouldn't they be better off in the buff like us Pokemon?"

"No, then they'd freeze to death in the winter," said Blaziken. "And they'd cut up their fragile little feet on the tough ground walking everywhere barefoot. They're not nearly as resilient as we are, and their skin is much thinner and weaker."

"Ah," said Sudowoodo. "How'd they become the dominant species on this planet again?"

"Opposable thumbs?" Blaziken suggested. She looked down at her claws. "But a lot of us have them too…hmm. That's a good question."

"Through cheating and technology, which is also cheating!" said Buizel.

"No it isn't, technology's very nice and useful. It gives us great food, makes transportation between places easy, and also allows us to watch television," Pikachu pointed out.

"Mmm…television…" all the trained Pokemon drooled.

"Wait, if it makes transportation so easy, why do we have to walk everywhere? It takes us forever to travel from city to city that way!" Turtwig pointed out.

"Yeah, it would be much faster if you could all fly, like me," Staraptor said, spreading his wings.

"Or if we took a car, or a train, or a bus…" muttered Empoleon. "Or even a boat! Why the heck don't we ever do that?" This last was directed at the human trainers, who glanced at themselves uncertainly.

"Uh…" said Ash.

"It's more interesting to take the scenic route?" Cynthia suggested.

"Yeah!" The others agreed quickly. Their Pokemon frowned, not entirely satisfied with that answer.

"Hey, why couldn't we change back?" Jessie and James complained.

"Because I despise you," Phantasma said plainly. "And now I'm going to send Jessie to the zoo and James back to his parents' house."

"Ha ha!" Meowth laughed, pointing at his horrorstricken teammates.

"No! I don't want to go to the zoo!" Jessie screamed.

"But Jesssie, you'll be famousss and tonsss of people will come from everywhere to sssee you," Seviper hissed, playing to his ex-trainer's ego.

"They will? Oh, all right then. If I mussst. The things I have to do for my public!" Jessie cried melodramatically, striking a ridiculous pose. Everyone else sweatdropped.

"Um, my parents won't be able to marry me off to Jessiebelle if I go home, will I?" James asked anxiously.

"No," said Phantasma. James sighed in relief. "You won't be able to escape from Growlie's affections, though."

James' eyes would have widened by horror if they weren't stuck behind Chimecho's tail. "WHAT?! No, wait, don't-"

It was too late. He, Jessie, and all their Pokemon were teleported away. "Well, that takes care of that," Phantasma said, looking pleased with herself. "And I even managed to find something for Dustox and Seviper, too…Seviper will join Arbok in a new apartment, and Dustox will go on to play a starring role in a great new sitcom called 'Uptown Cowboys', a show about a pair of cattle ranchers trying to raise a herd of one in an apartment in a big metropolitan city."

"A herd of one?" asked a skeptical Misty.

"Oh come on, how many do you really think could fit in an apartment in those cities? And besides, there've been worse concepts for sitcoms." They had to admit that this was indeed the case.

"One other question: Cynthia, what did _you_ wish for?" Dawn asked the League Champion.

"That's something I'd like to keep to myself…and my Pokemon," she said with an enigmatic smile.

"Oh," said Dawn.

"And with that, I am afraid it is time for me to go, for I have dallied here too long,"  
Phantasma said, somewhat apologetically. "It is my hope that we shall meet again…and that all the gifts I have given you will give you the happiness you deserve, as awkward or inconsequential as some of them may seem at the moment. And those who didn't get quite what they wanted…hopefully they've learned their lesson and will not do it again. Buizel and Brock, I'm looking at you." They both glared at her. She glared back. They whimpered and hid their faces. "So, farewell, my good friends, my saviors. It is my fondest hope that we shall meet again. Especially you, Cynthia, if you know what I mean." She and the trainer exchanged winks, much to everyone else's confusion. Phantasma prepared to leave, paused, and then smiled at Pikachu. "Oh, and Pikachu? I hope you enjoy my gift most of all." With that, she vanished, before anyone could ask any more questions.

Soon after, the sun came up. It was a very lovely sunrise, and the start of a beautiful new day for everyone.

…

Ash enjoyed being the world's youngest Pokemon Master for three weeks until, exasperated with the constant stream of challengers he was receiving, he forfeited the title willingly. He was surprised by how bad he didn't feel about this, now he had a chance to train harder and try to earn the title back for real, rather than have it given to him as a gift.Misty was, naturally, instrumental in Ash's recovery, and continued to travel with him, becoming a stronger trainer as well and getting closer and closer to Ash with every day they were together.

Staraptor was…Staraptor. Nothing interesting happened to him.

Turtwig strived hard to be cooler, and managed to succeed, and remained a proud member of the Brotherhood of Badass. He was never as cool as Sceptile or Charizard, of course, but that goes without saying.

Buizel challenged Ash's Machamp form to a fight, confident he'd win. Naturally, he got his ass kicked, and his head was hit so hard he actually decided to change his ways and become a nice guy.

Paul had constant repeating nightmares of himself getting violently torn apart by Chimchar which so unnerved him that he got no sleep and started losing constantly. When he inevitably ran into Ash again, the sight of his old Chimchar smiling at him, the same smile he had seen in his dreams on the face of the maniac killing him, drove him completely insane, and he had to be locked away in an institution for the rest of his life. His Pokemon were all released and wound up either becoming Ash's or returned to the wild, living happier and healthier lives from that point forward.

Misty's sisters, terrified by their nightmare of becoming Gyarados' supper, strived to become better trainers with much more personality and smarts. They succeeded, and became fairly competent leaders of Cerulean Gym, much to Misty's relief.

Politoed joined up with his cheerleading squad, but were forced to leave Misty, since she was worried Ash would get a big head if he had a whole bunch of people cheering him all the time. They found employment with the Pokemon League and were rented out to cheer at big battles and sports events.

Psyduck married Wigglytuff, made many more movies, got involved in countless scandals, broke up with Wigglytuff, married her again, joined a ridiculous faux religion made up by a sci-fi writer, and in general did all the stupid things a celebrity does that constantly fascinate the media and the public.

Corsola…didn't really do much of anything.

Azurill, Marill, and Totodile moved out to their new villa on the beach and lived happily ever after. Until Manaphy led an army of sea creatures to try to take his daughter back by force, but that's another story for another day.

Brock remained married to Croagunk, much to his personal displeasure and his family's happiness. In time he admitted to himself that it wasn't so bad being married to a Pokemon, even if its gender was never very clear and it attacked him whenever he had any girl fantasies or started crushing on a more beautiful woman. And he was building up an intolerance to poison, which was also a plus. Now, if only he could shake off the fear that he was going to be the father of a race of horrible frog-people which would overrun the Earth… (They turned out to be a race of quite friendly and benevolent frog-people, but that didn't stop Brock from getting a heart attack when he saw how many eggs his wife had laid, or the bigger one he had gotten when Croagunk announced he/she/it was pregnant.)  
Happiny became satisfied with Croagunk as a parent, and eventually grew up to be a lovely Chansey helping out her father at the Breeding Center he eventually opened.

Sudowoodo continued dating Blaziken, they grew closer together, and they eventually got married, or as close to married as most Pokemon get. Naturally, Brock's Breeding Center was where they laid their first egg and raised the child that eventually hatched from it.

May and Dawn argued a bit over who should get the ribbon, battled over it, tied, couldn't resolve anything, and are still trying to decide to this day who the world's best Coordinator is, as are all the confused people also trying to get that title. May also got into a relationship with Drew, and Dawn with Kenny, but you don't want to hear about that.

Glaceon, Empoleon, and Delcatty were all happy as fully evolved, powerful, and attractive Pokemon, and lived happily with lots of opportunities for contest and regular battles. They became pretty close, since their trainers were always fighting each other.

Beautifly got to be used more, which is what she had always wanted.

Snorlax always got lots to eat, and so was content.

Now that he was evolved, Wartortle was much more courageous, and fought in many battles bravely.

Ambipom always bitterly resented the fact that she never got to rule her kingdom of apes, so took it out on others by stealing their hats and hoarding them for herself.

Pachirisu…some things are better left unsaid.

Jessie lived unhappily ever after at the zoo. While everyone did come from far and wide to see her, they were always screaming and throwing up and talking about how ugly she was. Some jerk kids threw stuff at her. It was almost enough to make you feel sorry for her…almost.

Seviper and Arbok had a much happier time in their apartment. They had to face some harassment, being a gay Pokemon couple in the big city, but they strived in spite of it and loved each other no matter what anyone else said.

Dustox's sitcom got cancelled after five episodes. He wound up getting work in B-rated monster movies instead. Occasionally, he costarred with Psyduck.

Wobbuffet returned to the wild lands of his birth and lived happily ever after as well.

James and his 'harem' lived fairly happily at his family estate, except for the times when Growly happily tried to burn him alive, or Jessiebelle tried to murder him, or when his spouses kept trying to eat him…still, he thanked every day he got to live this life, because it was much better than it had been being a member of Team Rocket.

Mime Jr. eventually left James, feeling his lifestyle was too hectic, and became a soap opera star. He was pretty good at it, too.

Meowth enjoyed being a human and the son of Norman and Caroline eventually. He grew to love them dearly for the care and kindness they showered upon him, and even came to like May and the other 'twerps' to some extent. Only rarely did he think back to his time as a Meowth and wish he could still be a Pokemon, who didn't have to wear pants.

Pikachu, Buneary, and Max had a happy family life too. Pikachu wasn't pleased about how he had been essentially shanghaied into being a father and husband, but he was a good and caring person, and it didn't take long for him to get close to and love his new family very much. They had yet to discover Phantasma's gift to Pikachu, and when they did they would certainly be very surprise: she had bestowed immortality and almost godlike power onto the little mouse, power that would spill over onto his family and loved ones and increase their strength and longevity as well. If he lived long enough, they might even evolve into legendary Pokemon. Phantasma was looking forward to seeing that.

And speaking of the sorceress, she swiftly retook her kingdom and reshaped the ghosts of the world, who had grown rather lax, rowdy, and all sorts of stuff in her absence. She reconstructed her palace, much to the uneasiness of the nearby town, and turned Lavender Town into a summer resort for her and her court to go to to relax. The townspeople there weren't happy either, but they weren't really given a lot of choice in the matter.

Cynthia visited Phantasma frequently to learn more of the lore and knowledge the ancient ghost possessed, and the two became very good friends. Some thought that they were more, but there was little solid proof to back these rumors.

And as for how Cynthia resolved the complex love polygon she and her Pokemon had gotten themselves into…well, that would be telling, wouldn't it?

THE END


	18. Mewn

Mewn

Disclaimer: We Don't Own Anyone except Timothy and Taze.

This story was written by Tazkol, and edited by both Ri2 and Myself.

------

_Taze's POV_

I floated for a few minutes and stared down at the earth below. Surviving in a climate that almost no other living being could wasn't too hard for us Mew, we were a very hardy species. I looked back into the psychic bubble that held my family, my mate's black fur glistening in the sunlight, the silver crescent on her forehead shining with pure white light. Sleeping soundly next to her was a leaf-green Mewlet. I gave them one last gaze, feeling a deep and endless love for the two of them welling up inside me.

"Sleep well, I'll be back soon," I whispered as I began the plunge down to the planet below, shielding myself from the heat of reentry with the nearly limitless power of my mind. I looked back over the events of the last few weeks that had led to my decision to do what I planned to do now. It started about one month ago…

_Flashback_

"_SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!"_

The mental cry was incredibly powerful. It carried so many emotions with it; fear, anguish, betrayal, anger, hate, and agony. I woke up with a start, my sky-blue fur soaked in sweat. My mate Mewn also woke up, sensing my surprise. "What is it?" she asked softly.

I stared at her uneasily. I knew that cry had not been a dream, but I didn't want to trouble her with it, not now, not with a child coming. "Nothing," I lied "Probably just picking up a random Abra's distresst before it got caught." She frowned, clearly not believing me, but she was too tired to make a big deal over it, so just nodded and drifted back to sleep. Being a family of Mews in orbit, it was common for us to pick up the signals of random psychics who didn't want to be captured by humans. We ourselves feared being caught, hence why our species has spent the last 10,000 years perfecting our adaptation techniques. We have kept entire colonies concealed from humans by hiding at the bottom of the ocean, inside active volcanoes, and, just like my family and I, by living in orbit. Still, that mental transmission had not been from a Pokémon. If I didn't know better, I'd have said it was almost human, but that was crazy, Mew Prime had buffered our race so that even the most powerful human psychic, Sabrina, could not pick up one of our thoughts. The only other option was the remake, the Mewtwo, but it had been safely hidden by a Mew not long ago and remained that way to this very day.

So that left the question of just who was trying to contact me. I decided that there was only one thing I could do. I opened up a private psychic link to wherever that projection had come from and replied to it. _"Who or what are you? I would like to help you, but I need to know more." _ The message hung in the air for a minute, but there was no reply. Disappointed, I settled down and allowed myself to drift back to sleep.

_End flashback_

I was nearing the Earth. As soon as I reached the surface I changed direction and shot off straight ahead. The signal was getting stronger whatever it was, it wasn't far away. I flew towards the target, expertly dodging around and out of the way of my cousins in the process, not even stopping to apologize for barging through due to my extreme haste.

As I sped towards my target with maximum speed, I began to question the nature of humans. They had the potential for great good, or horrible evil. Why had these humans done something so awful to one of their own? I remembered my reaction to what had happened when I first found out. It was only about a week ago.

_Flashback_

"_Please, if you can hear this, please come and help me, I'm losing a bit of myself every day, I don't know how much longer I can last."_ The voice projected. Though the signal this time was frail, I could still sense the fear from the person behind it. As quickly as I could, I strengthened the link using my own power. Even so, I only had enough time to bring up one memory, a memory that would haunt me until the end of time.

_???? Flashback_

I was in a dark room, in a chamber submerged in some sort of fluid with tubes all over my body. I looked around. Although the view was distorted by the transparent walls of my tank, I could still see there were white-coated scientists all over the room. They seemed to be discussing something. At first I heard nothing, but then I started to hear their voices…inside…my head?

"So who's the kid?" one scientist asked

"He's Giovanni's new pet project. Ever since project Mewtwo freaked out, he's been trying to figure out a way to stabilize a new one. Some of us thought that maybe turning a human into a Mewtwo could work, seeing as a child can be raised to believe what they're told, we decided to make a human into a baby Mewtwo. However a human child, could in no way survive the transformation, so we just took a teenager that we found and rolled back the clock," another one explained

"Wow," said one of the scientists, clearly impressed. "I can think of a lot of people who would pay any amount of money for a youth-restoring treatment like that."

The scientist who had explained everything nodded. "Yes, but it's a Team Rocket secret. So no telling anyone else about this! If you do, they'll probably kill us all!" They laughed, though there was an undertone of anxiety and fear beneath their joviality

My eyes widened in horror at what I had just heard. I banged on the wall of the tube until one of the scientists pressed a button, and then everything went black.

_End ???? FlAshback_

I'll never forget the fear in that boy's mind when I saw that. I finally decided to tell Mewn the truth; after I explained what I had seen to her we were silent for a minute.

"So you'll be leaving then?" she asked me at last.

"Yes" I sighed "just as soon as the baby arrives, but don't worry, I'll be back."

_End Flashback_

I slowed down as I came close to the signal. It was coming from a human building. The entrance was guarded by two humans dressed in black uniforms with a big red R on the front. I could easily just teleported past them, but I didn't want to have to run into them on my way out, so tried to devise a way to remove them from their posts. I scanned their minds and Pokeballs; the first one had an Alakazam and a Gengar, who were busy discussing the mysteries of the universe. The second had a Ryhorn and a Machop, which would be perfect for my plan. I used Transform to take the form of a Dragonair, a species I knew humans were partial to, and then floated peacefully by them as if I didn't have a care in the world. Both humans' jaws dropped; the second reacted faster than his friend.

"Go Machop, get me that Dragonair!" he called out as he threw out his Pokemon. The gray Fighting Pokemon appeared in a flAsh of white light and got into a fighting stance. I quickly feigned fear and swooped away into the bushes. The Machop followed me with great zeal, hoping to impress its trainer. It wouldn't get the chance. I changed back to my true form and used Hypnosis on him, causing him to drift off to a peaceful sleep. I used Transform again to take on his form, and then walked out of the bushes.

"Did you get him, Machop?" the Rocket trained asked. I nodded and brandished a Machop-patented thumbs up. Leaving his crestfallen partner behind, the Rocket followed me into the clearing, where we came upon the real Machop, who was still sleeping soundly. He gave me a confused look. I giggled and changed back, before he could grab a Pokéball I put him to sleep. Then, struck by a rather mischievous whim, I giggled some more as my eyes glowed and slowly caused the human to shrink. His hair fell out as the three skull ridges of a Machop grew from the top of his head. His body became slightly smaller and curvier then the Machop sleeping not too far away from him as I finished changing his gender as well as his species. I smirked gleefully; they both would have a surprise when they woke up. I slowly transformed into the human, putting on the clothing he had left behind, and walked back out of the clearing.

"Did you catch it?" the other human asked dejectedly. He had clearly wanted the Dragonair very badly. It almost made me feel sorry for what I was about to do to him…almost.

"Nah, it got away while Machop came to get me," I said casually. The human looked relieved, lowering his guard. I immediately took that opportunity, using Psychic to slam him back into the wall. I then used Hypnosis on him to put him to sleep and keep him from sounding the alarm.

I casually walked into the base, avoiding eye contact with any of the humans so as to avoid having to explain why I was not outside guarding the entrance with my partner. The psychic signal was getting ever stronger, so strong it was almost causing me pain. Following the signal, I came to a door that was pulsating with psychic energy, and knew what I was looking for had to be inside. No object could give off that much psychic energy, and I wouldn't pick up a human unless I was trying to.

I reached for the door handle…and a hand shot out from behind me. Someone must have found the sleeping guard outside and realized that something was wrong, especially if his partner was inside instead of out at his post. I blasted the man to the other side of the hallway and changed back to my natural form, blowing the door down as the alarms started blaring

I flew into the room and telekinetically moved the biggest object in the room, the main computer console, in front of the entrance to keep them from entering. I turned around slowly to take in my surroundings. What I saw shocked me. The room was full of computers and files, but what drew my attention was the clear glass tube in the center of the room. Floating inside it, suspended in a mysterious liquid, was a replica of the Mewtwo as he must have looked in his infant stage. This was the person who had called to me for help. This was the creature I had come to save.

Acting quickly, I used my powers to disconnect the tubes attached to the child's body. When I was finished I went over to the nearest machine and siphoned as much information as I could to find out what was going on. It wasn't easy to convert digital data into mental thoughts, but I did what I could. I found the information I was looking for in a short time, the files clearly read:

PROJECT MEWTWO VERSION 2.0

HUMAN NAME: TIMOTHY JONES

TRANSFORMATION: 100 COMPLETE

MEMORY WIPE: 50 COMPLETE

OBEDIENCE PROGRAMMING: 12 COMPLETE

DEFENSIVE PROGRAMMING: 45 COMPLETE

HOSTILE PROGRAMMING: 10 COMPLETE

I sighed with relief, if the child was not completely hostile I could free him with little danger. Before pulling away from the computer I found an interesting file that caught my eye. I quickly read it. When I was finished a rage, unlike any I had felt before filled me, I got so angry I blew the computer up right there before turning my attention back to the child.

I could easily have shattered the glass with little effort, but was wary of hurting the child within. I slowly began to forge a mental link with the changeling, being careful not to startle him. _"Young one! Do not be afraid, wake up!"_

I used a soft soothing mental tone. At first I thought that maybe my message had not gotten through, but then his eyes shot open and I flinched back. I hadn't expected such mental power from something so young, and I was blasted into a vat of mysterious green fluid against a wall. Annoyed and soaking wet, I floated out of the vat, my fur drenched in the strange fluid. I looked down at my paw and saw that my once sky-blue fur was now a dark emerald green. For a moment I felt nothing, and then a feeling bubbled up inside me; a very familiar feeling, it was...happiness. Our species had long since adapted to be only light colors, and dark-colored Mews, such as my beautiful mate Mewn, were exceedingly rare. I had always wished that my fur could be dark like hers. Now it seemed like my wish had been granted in the most awkward way.

My attention was pulled away by a gentle nudging in the back of my mind. The voice was young and filled with fear and hatred, at first it said only one word: _"Anger."_

I thought for a minute before replying in a calming voice, _"Anger is not the answer young one; transform your anger into power."_

The voice replied in an almost scared tone, _"Okay."_

I realized I had scared him, and tried to calm him again. _"You have nothing to fear from me young one, I wish to help you, not to cause you more pain."_

"_N--no...Everyone causes me pain…everyone hates me..."_

"_No young one, these humans are evil, but not all humans are evil,"_ I replied soothingly.

"_Not just humans. EVERYONE."_ The anger in that statement seared me to the bone. I knew I had to do something to save this child before he became a monster.

"_Young one, not everyone. I can show you, let me help you, let me show you!"_

"_...Why should I trust you? You're thinking of me as some sort of dangerous object."_

I was taken aback by this; I had not thought that it could read my mind while it was sleeping. _"Only because I fear the harm you can do to yourself if your hatred is not quenched before it can fester and grow. Please…let me help you before it's too late."_

"_A--- Alright..."_ the child said timidly. I sighed in relief.

"_Then together, let us free you from this human trap."_

"_We'd better hurry. There's about... twa--twi--- two ten people coming."_

I concentrated on the glass with all the power I could muster; I knew that on the other side my friend was concentrating just as hard. At first I thought it might not be enough, but to my relief the glass began to crack, slowly at first, then spreading out faster and faster until the glass shattered and fell away, the liquid spilling out across the floor. The child was free! Our joy was short-lived, though, as I heard the console blocking the door groan as the Rockets attacked it repeatedly with their Pokemon, trying to shove it out of the way.

"_Come young one, we must make haste. Reach into my mind and bring up the location I am thinking of."_

"_Ok..."_

"_Now, concentrate on this location. We are not here, we are there, we are standing there, we are no longer standing here, we are standing there."_

The room around us shimmered and faded away, transforming into a clearing in the forest not far away. I sighed with relief as I felt the sunshine soak into my skin, re-energizing me. While Mews were capable of eating solid food, and enjoyed it immensely, our primary source of fuel was the sun. Its light and head were absorbed into our bodies, altering our cellular makeup and granting us incredible longevity and unfathomable power. _"What…what is that?" _whispered the young Mewtwo, his eyes wide with wonder.

"_That is the sun, the source of life and light for this world," _I told him.

"_It-it's beautiful…"_ he whispered back, tears of joy running down the face. _"It…everything is…so beautiful. I had no idea the world was like this, outside where they…where they kept me…"_ He shuddered at the memory. I quickly changed the subject.

"_I do not believe we have formally introduced ourselves. My name is Taze. And you are?"_

The Mewtwo blinked. _"Name? I…I don't think I have one. The scientists just called me 'Mewtwo 2.0'."_

I frowned at this. _"Well, that won't do at all. Everything has a name."_ I thought for a moment. _"According to the computer where I found you, before you were changed, your name was 'Timothy'."_

"_Then Timothy is my name," _the young Mewtwo said decisively. He seemed happy to have a name at last, and I shared in his joy.

That joy did not last for long, though, when we both noticed that we were not alone in the clearing. There were a pair of sleeping Machop nearby…a very _familiar_ pair of Machop, too. Timothy's eyes widened in surprise as he inspected the Machop couple. _"Do not be afraid, young one," _I said quickly, realizing this could become awkward very fast.

"_Who...are they?" _he asked suspiciously. I sighed, and told him.

"_The female used to be one of the humans guarding the place where they were holding you, she was a male human, but I transformed him as 'punishment'. The male was her Machop."_

The Mewtwo glared at them harshly and started charging up a Shadow Ball. I flew in front of him and Transformed into an Alakazam, using Reflect to block the attack. _"First rule of our race, never attack a cousin unless it is called for."_

Timothy ceased his attack _"But I'm not like you..."_

I transformed back to my Mew state _"Wrong. Every Pokémon is like me, there are few Pokémon in this world that did not originate from the Prime Mew DNA strand. You are even closer, since you have pure Mew blood in your veins."_

"_But I was born a h-h--one of those…things…"_ Timothy clutched his head in pain. _"What's wrong with me?"_

"_You were born a human, but you wouldn't have survived the change had you not possessed the heart of a Mew." _I allowed msyelf to share the pain the Mewtwo was feeling to make it all the more bearable _"We cannot kill these Machops."_

"_That's not my problem... I-- I can't rem—rem…"_

I slowly edged my way into Timothy's mind and began searching to see if I could find evidence of his past life. However, all he could find was little and degraded. _"I'm sorry young one, I cannot help you. This task would require the strength of Mew Prime to succeed."_

He shook his head angrily. _"St-Stop calling me 'young one'. I have a name, remember? Timothy. Timothy--something... I don't even know my last name anymore..."_

I thought for a moment. _"There might be one who could help you. He is similar to you, though he was born from scratch, he once lost all control and nearly destroyed the world, until a young man found him and helped him. I need to seek out the chosen one. With his help, maybe we can find...Mewtwo."_

"_Mewtwo... Is that what I am?"_

"_Yes. Your powers exist in the mind, in all things psychic."_

Timothy looked down sadly, and noticed the Machops were starting to stir. _"Wouldn't it be cruel to make the Female remember her life as a male human?"_

I nodded. _"That is true, yet another thing about you that astounds me: that you show mercy to those you hate even after they have tortured you."_

Taze began to draw all the Machop's memories together. After a few short minutes he had wiped her past away and started her new life "Where am I?" the female said as she woke up.

"What happened?" the male said as he too woke up.

"_Hello cousin,"_ I projected to them. The two Machops stared at me in amazement before falling prostrate before them.

"_What? What's going on?"_ asked the startled Timothy.

"_We are more powerful than they can imagine. Many Pokemon and humans perceive us as gods," _I explained.

"_I-I see, Mr Taze."_

"_Please Timothy, I am only 500 years old, still pretty young by our terms. Please just call me Taze, or if you prefer, Uncle Taze."_

He nodded. _"Ok, Uncle Taze."_

I turned my attention back to the two bowing Machops. _"Rise cousins, we haven't come to judge you or to punish you, we require your help."_

The male rose, staring at us in awe. "Mew and a Mewtwo require help from us? What can we do for you?"

"_Well, first I would like to get your names please."_

The male straightened up and put on a proud smile "I'm Rocky."

The female did likewise "I'm Chun."

"_I am Taze, and this is..."_ I motioned my tail towards Timothy.

"_Timothy."_

"_We need your help to track down the Chosen One," _I stated with certainty. _"Go and ask around, alert any Pokémon you can find, and then come back here with the information. You will be rewarded greatly." _I watched as the Machops ran off into the bushes. _"Now we wait, Timothy."_

Timothy silently nodded. I turned to him with a smile on my face _"Maybe it's time we had a little practice, in the meantime."_

- - -

A little farther away, a large group of trainers were traveling through the forest. Ash, Misty, Brock, Max, and May, were traveling back to Pallet Town after his Sinnoh League battle, enjoying the shade on the back of Ash's new Pokémon Torterra.

Next to them was a second Torterra carrying some new and older friends of theirs. The Torterra belonged to Lucas, a young boy who Ash had met during the Sinnoh League and naturally became rivals/best friends with. Riding next to him was Dawn, another friend Ash had met as well as a Pokémon Coordinator. Behind them sat Brendan Birch, son of the great Professor Birch and one of the best trainers from the Hoenn region. Sitting next to Brendan and chattering like a Diglet was Michael, a young boy with big dreams from the Orre region. He was in his happy place at the moment because he was sitting next to all his boyhood heroes. Close to the back, almost on the tail of Torterra was Wes, a former member of team Snagem and his girlfriend Rui, a bright young girl who was the only person able to get close to Wes.

"It sure is great not having to walk home on foot!" Ash said happily.

"Yeah, but why is mine the one that's weighed down with so many people?" Lucas complained

"Because mine got annoyed at Michael, and it hasn't trusted YOU since your Monferno nearly burnt down its tree," Ash said in a matter of fact tone of voice.

"He said he was sorry…" Lucas grumbled.

"Sorry won't replace his missing foliage," Ash replied as he looked over at Misty

She was lying back on the sunny part of the shell, sunbathing in her swimsuit and a pair of sunglasses. Ash thought back to his journey through Hoenn and the beginning of the Sinnoh region. It had been torture going through all that without her there, then one morning, much to his surprise, she was waiting for him in a gym. He didn't even recognize her at first, when he had entered the gym he had thought she was just another trainer with a new Piplup who had been beaten by the gym leader.

It wasn't until the group had come up and asked her what was wrong that Ash recognized her. She joined their party immediately afterwards, and everything had been a lot better since then, in Ash's opinion anyway. The boy's thoughts were interrupted when Misty glanced at him coyly and said, "Take a picture, it'll last longer."

Ash caught the obvious invitation for one of their old fashioned arguments with no trouble. "Like I'd stare at you," Ash said playfully.

Misty put on a show of mock anger that only Ash would recognize as false. "WHY YOU LITTLE!!" She turned away and went back to speaking in a calm tone. "Some people just don't know how to appreciate natural beauty." Everyone else rolled their eyes.

"Can't you two just enjoy the ride?" Brock asked in exasperation. This led to Brock getting a major beating from Misty's mallet, naturally.

Lucas looked over to Ash and Misty and shook his head, "Some boyfriend and girlfriend you two are."

"HE/SHE IS NOT MY BOYFRIEND/GIRLFRIEND" Ash and Misty yelled in unison, faces flushed.

Pikachu, who had been sitting on a branch on Ash's Torterra, sighed; he knew some things never changed. Looking up at the sky, he was surprised to notice a Pidgeot flying towards them. On closer examination he saw it was Ash's Pidgeot! What was it doing here, so far away from the forest near Pallet Town it had been living in for the last five years?

-Pikachu you guys need to slow down, or stop!- Pidgeot called to Pikachu.

-Why? - Pikachu shouted back.

-There's a Mew looking for Ash!- Pidgeot replied.

The electric mouse gasped. -WHAT? TORTERRA STOP!!!- Pikachu shouted.

-Okay.- Torterra came to an abrupt stop, throwing all of its passengers off.

"OW! HEY!" they yelled.

-Sorry,- said the turtle.

Pikachu's eye twitched, and he barely restrained himself from electrocuting the giant Grass-type. -Tell the Mew we'll be right here,- he said to Pidgeot instead. The bird nodded and flew off.

"What's wrong Pikachu?" Ash asked

Pikachu tried to explain, failing since Ash, as a human, didn't really understand a word his Pokemon said, though he managed to get that they needed to wait right there, which he immediately and stubbornly insisted they do, despite everyone's protests and the fact that he had no actual reason to make them stop other than, "My Pikachu said too, so there."

"What is he, the Pokemon Whisperer?" Wes grumbled sarcastically. "Rui, remind me, where's my bike and why aren't we riding on it instead of being stuck here?"

"The Pikachu accidentally destroyed it," Rui said.

Wes' eye twitched. "Ah, of course. And I didn't do anything about it _why?!_"

Pikachu glared at the ex-thief, his cheeks sparking. Memories of just how much his bike was supposed to be able to withstand and how easily the Pikachu destroyed it.

"Oh yeah. That's why..." he muttered to himself, slightly impressed (and intimidated, but there's no way he'd admit _**THAT**_).

From out of nowhere a white light appeared and took on the form of two floating figures. The group gasped. "Aha! You see! I told you there was a reason we were supposed to stay here!" Ash cried triumphantly.

"Still doesn't mean you're not insane…" Wes muttered.

"Whoa…" said Michael.

Max sighed in annoyance. "Great, what sort of stupid adventure do we need to go on now?"

"There probably won't be any girls…" Brock complained.

"They're so cute!" squealed May, Misty, Dawn and Rui, causing the psychics (and everyone else) to sweatdrop.

"Aren't Mews supposed to be pink?" asked Dawn.

"I think they can be any color they want to be," Lucas said reasonably.

"Are we supposed to catch them or something?" asked Wes, with a slight grin on his face. Timothy responded rather violently to that question, telekinetically lifting him into the air and smashing him face-first into a tree repeatedly. Most of the group stared in horror.

"Well, I guess that answers that question," Brendan noted, "Eh, Wes?"

"Shut up...", Wes muttered weakly.

"_Timothy, put down that human, you don't know where he's been," _Taze scolded the mini-Mewtwo. Timothy reluctantly did just that. _"I want you to meet the Chosen One, a trainer who for some reason is fated to save the world a lot…nobody really knows why."_

"_H—hello,"_ Timothy said timidly.

"Uh, hi?" Ash said uncertainly.

"_Greetings Chosen One, I am Taze, this is Timothy," _Taze explained.

"He looks a bit frightened," Ash commented.

"_He is having trouble trusting people. He was once like you."_

"Dense and ridiculously lucky?" Wes commented, causing Rui to hit him. "Ow."

"He was once a human?" Max asked, looking fascinated.

"Cooool," said Michael.

Taze nodded. _"Yes, but it was not cool. Not cool at all."_

"What happened to him?" Misty asked, her heart, and the rest of the girls', immediately going out to the poor thing.

Timothy fidgeted. Taze glanced at him. _"Timothy, can you go make sure our Machop friends have started off well?" _Timothy nodded and teleported away. With the young Mewtwo gone, Taze started explaining everything. _"He was abducted by Team Rocket, his family and Pokémon were killed and he was forced into this project that turned him into what he is now. Half of his memories have been erased and what's left isn't very informative... Chosen One?"_

Ash smirked. "Call me Ash. Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town!"

"_Very well Ash, a few years ago you and a pink Mew helped to hide an entity of incredible mental ability,"_ Taze continued.

Ash blinked. "You mean...?"

Taze nodded. _"Yes... I mean Mewtwo. I need you to take me to him."_

"Wait, Mews like you are super-psychic. Can't you find this... Mewtwo thing, on your own?," Micheal pointed out.

"_Mewtwo is highly powerful, even compared to me, and he can't be found by psychic means if he doesn't want to. He doesn't want a repeat of the Grandpa Canyon incident."_, Taze explained.

"The what?"

"It's a long story...", Misty Noted.

Ash added, "Plus he'd probably kill us if we told you anything about it."

_"I'd also like to ask a favor of you, Ash."_

"A favor?"

"Uh oh…this sort of thing never ends well…" murmured a worried Brock.

"Ash, if it asks for your soul, say no!" Dawn yelled to Ash.

"_Timothy needs a parent; my mate and I would take him in but..."_ Taze trailed off.

Ash frowned. "But I'm a human... what are you asking...?"

"_We Mews take a very long time to mature, whereas Mewtwos mature quickly. It is within my power to make you of his kind, so that you will be able to take proper care of him. I'd have asked Mewtwo to do it, but you know what a sourpuss he is. Would probably end up giving poor Timothy a rather distorted worldview and make him think of destroying the world."_

Ash nodded, seeing the point though not understanding in the least why Taze was talking to him about this and not someone more qualified. "Not to be rude, but…why exactly should I do this? You're talking about giving up my humanity."

"_You will be able to provide for Timothy. In addition, you and yours will experience immortality, your friends shall live happy lives."_

"Wait, when'd we get roped into this?!" cried an alarmed Brock. "I though _Ash_ was being asked a favor, not us!"

"Yeah, don't we get some say in this?! Why should Ash be the one to choose all our fates? I like being human!" protested Misty.

"Though it _does_ sound kinda cool…" Max admitted. "To be an immortal Pokemon and all."

"Yeah," Michael agreed. "But what about my mom and sister? They're certainly not getting in on this, are they?"

"I don't want to lose my mom…" Dawn said unhappily. Lucas sympathetically put an arm on her shoulder.

"I want no part in this," Wes said firmly.

"But Wes-" Rui started.

"Dammit, no, Rui! I'm happy the way I am!" he cut her off.

Ash nodded, agreeing with his friends and/or acquaintances. "We're happy enough now. And we don't want to leave our families behind!"

Taze sighed. _"Did I forget to mention that aside from immortality, you'll also be more attractive, have higher physical and mental aptitudes, awesome powers, and the ability to shift forms and have an edge in battles and/or contests?"_ That part actually made them stop and think about it for a minute. Seeing they were tempted, Taze pressed on._ "I can also change whoever you would like, name the person. I can even add a familial gene to your Pikachu making you truly brothers. In addition, I can even give you the power to change your families so they can join you, both you and your 'friends'" _

The others immediately started pushing Ash and telling him he should accept. Wavering in the face of peer pressure, Ash hesitantly said, "I-I guess..."

Taze frowned. _"You must be positive, I cannot do this on a guess, and there is no way to reverse this."_

"A-Alright," Ash said quickly, realizing his companions would probably tear him apart for the lost opportunity if he said 'no'.

Timothy chose that moment to teleport back in. _"They told me they were going to be 'busy' Uncle Taze, and to come back for them in two hours."_

The Mew sweatdropped _"Heh, well leave them for that. Are you ready, Ash?"_

"_What is he ready for?"_ asked Timothy.

"_You shall see."_

Ash nodded, feeling everyone's eyes on him. "Yeah... I'm ready."

Taze's eye's shone with green energy as he started the change. At first it seemed like nothing was happening...but then gray fur started to sprout all over Ash's face and arms. His ears traveled up to the top of his head and became triangular as his face pulled out into a small muzzle. The back of his pants blew out as a huge tail grew out from his rear. His legs thickened further until the rest of his pants were torn to shreds. His body also thickened until his shirt burst into shreds, revealing a jet-black underbelly. His fingers merged until his hands were left with two fingers and a thumb, each with a ball at the end. Ash's feet underwent a similar transformation, becoming two-toed with a ball on each toe and growing from the end of his heels. A tube stretched from the back of his head to his body as his transformation completed, Ash growing taller and aging as well.

Ash looked down at himself in amazement. The others stared in astonishment. "Wow," Max said finally.

"Wait, how is this being more attractive?" Wes questioned. "Though I guess he is better-looking now than he was as a human."

"Wes!" Rui snapped.

"What? It's true!" Misty growled and considered hammering him, but then Rui smacked him, so she decided there was no need.

Taze nearly fell to the ground as the energy of transformation died down; he had not expected the energy surge to be so powerful. "_Timothy, meet your new father."_

The smaller Mewtwo's eyes lit up as he heard this, and he immediately flew into a startled Ash's arms. _"DADDY!"_

Taze slowly rose back into the air and sent a thought to the two Torterra, who had nearly dozed off, who then nodded before charging up and firing synchronized Solar Beams at Taze, recharging the Mew's natural energy. When the beams faded, Taze was once again floating in the air, a little more jittery then before with a strange fire in his eyes.

"What?!" Ash cried as he looked at the small Mewtwo in his arms. He was even more shocked when he heard "Two?!" instead of "What?!"

"_Use your mind Ash,"_ Taze advised.

"_Whoa! I didn't really plan on things moving this fast…and..."_ Ash's gaze turned to Misty _"Something's missing."_

"_I know,"_ the Mew giggled. _"Because we're not finished yet."_

Misty smiled nervously. "I guess it's my turn then…bring it on. I mean, it'll mean I won't have to take care of my stupid sisters anymore, right?" The Mew's eyes glowed an even brighter green then before as Misty was lifted up off the ground. "I'll take that as a yes."

"_Is she going to be Mama?"_ Timothy asked hopefully.

"_Yes,"_ said Ash.

Fur the same color as her hair began to grow on Misty's body. Her chest began to swell, gaining the Mew a weird stare from everyone present. What puberty had seemed to ignore she was now being given, plus interest, she soon had a bust to rival most supermodels, yet it in no way looked unnatural to her form. The back of her shorts were torn clean off by her tail, luckily the transformation of that area had progressed so far that no one could see anything anyway. Her legs, arms, and ears all changed in similar ways to Ash's own, except that they seemed slimmer and slightly more delicate.

In the end Misty was a rather beautiful red Mewtwo, everything from the way her tail swayed to how her muzzle stood out and the way her body's curves seemed to accentuate every part of her seemed to give off an aura of feminine beauty.

"She's beautiful," whispered an amazed and envious May.

Ash stood in place, if his jaw could've it would have fallen down half a mile past the other side of the planet. He got a nosebleed, though, as did Max and Michael, so that probably counted. The other guys looked a little glassy-eyed too, much to their significant others' (those who had them) dismay.

Well, except for Wes. "Am I supposed to be attracted to that?" he asked skeptically. "I mean, yeah, she's got a big chest, but so's a Jynx. It's just another Pokemon to me. I don't feel attracted to Pokemon that way…unlike the rest of you sickoes, apparently."

"Oh shut up," Rui grumbled, elbowing him. "You're ruining the moment." She glared at him. "And besides, wouldn't you find _me_ attractive if I looked like that?" Wes shifted uneasily, knowing there wasn't really any safe answer to that question that didn't make him seem like an uncaring boyfriend or a pervert.

Taze didn't really see what the big deal was or why some of them were still looking at him all weird._ "What? That IS the way you humans view a "Perfect Female," is it not? Or at least, that's what your magazines seem to indicate. I COULD always make some changes, if this is a problem."_ Everyone immediately assured him that it most definitely was not a problem.

"_I think I'm good with this," _Misty agreed, already happy with her new form.

"_She's a goddess,"_ Ash let out accidentally, trying hard not to drool. Misty flushed.

Taze looked at the small Mewtwo, who looked ecstatic about his new 'mother.' _"Timothy, I'm getting tired, would you like to try your luck with the smaller one?"_

Timothy gasped. _"You mean I get a brother too?!"_

Taze nodded. _"Yes, if that's what you want."_

Timothy frowned. _"But...Uncle Taze...He's thinking of ANOTHER Legendary Pokémon..."_

Taze was surprised. _"Oh really, and which one is that?"_

"_I've never seen it before, but it looks...sort of like a kid with a star on its head..."_ Timothy explained, confused.

Taze frowned in thought. _"The Wishmaker? An odd choice, but fine, the Wishmaker it is_."

"Wait, when you said 'smaller one' did you mean me or…him?" Michael asked, pointing at Max.

"_Him,"_ the Mews said, much to Max's surprise and May's horror.

"Wha-what? But I've got a journey to go on! And Jirachi went to sleep and won't be up for another thousand years; I don't want to be a Jirachi if I have to do something like that!" Max protested.

"Yeah, Mom and Dad would never allow it," May agreed.

_"There were never two before, the Wishmaker will wake up when he senses another one, and will be here soon enough,"_ Taze explained.

"But what about the place he protects? Won't it die without him?" Max protested.

"_It will never die, it will be stopped until things can be planned but it will not die."_

"Oh... Okay...well, in that case…" Max said with a grin.

"_But you'll still be MY brother!"_ Timothy said happily. He held out his hand, and his eyes began glowing blue.

"Wait, but he's _my_ brother too!" May protested.

"_Uh…we'll work something out…"_ Taze said shiftily.

Max felt weird as his head began to reform; three large hornlike pieces growing out of each side and the top. Three small blue rectangular sheets of paper appeared, dangling from the ends of each horn. His body grew pale and began to shrink. His arms and legs became stubby and small. Two yellow ribbon-like wings grew from his back as his head turned white and a large third eye opened up on his chest, the regular ones shrinking into big black dots. As Max's body finished changing, the third eye on his chest closed tightly.

Taze bowed his head to Max. _"Welcome, new Wishmaker."_

"_Thank you. But I should be greeting you,"_ Max replied.

"_As should I be greeting you both," _said a new voice. Everyone turned around to see the original Jirachi rubbing the sleep out of its eyes, clearly having just woken up.

"_Jirachi!!!" _Max cried joyfully, sounding like a little kid…one littler than he already was, or had been. He wrapped his arms around his fellow Jirachi in a tight hug.

"_How come he gets a hug? I'm your brother."_ Timothy complained. Max laughed and gave Timothy an equally strong hug, ending his complaints.

Taze laughed _"And so a happy family begins."_

"_Wait, are we supposed to adopt Max and Jirachi too?"_ asked a confused Ash. _"I don't remember agreeing to that."_

"And what about me? I'm already his sister! He already HAS parents! He can't just go off and become someone else's son!" May agreed.

"_Hmm, that's a good point. Okay then, sorry Timothy, but Max can't be your brother," _Taze decided.

"_What? But why?!"_ Timothy protested.

"_It's not right to steal children from their families and try to make them part of your own. That's what Team Rocket did to you, sort of," _Taze pointed out.

"_Oh…yeah, I guess that's a good point,"_ Timothy agreed reluctantly.

"_Don't worry, we can be cousins instead,"_ Max suggested. _"We can still see each other and play whenever we want, without having to share bedrooms or toys and stuff!"_

"_Okay,"_ Timothy said, readily agreeing to this compromise.

"_Yay, I always wanted a cousin!"_ Jirachi cheered happily.

May sweatdropped. "Wait…does this mean _my_ family has to adopt Jirachi? Ugh…Mom and Dad aren't going to like this…or how I explain to them that their son isn't human anymore…"

Taze turned to Brendan, his strength recovered from the brief rest he had taken while Timothy changed Max. He had something special planned for the boy. As Taze's eyes lit up, Brendan's skin went as white as his hair, then started splitting into many plate-like scales. His hands began to change, his five fingers blending into three as his nails became long white claws. His eyes turned yellow and gave off a ferocious gleam. His face pushed out into a small snout as his teeth became sharper, his ears withdrew into his head, and small horns poked out of the back of his skull. A long reptilian tail burst through his pants. His mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. His hair slipped out and his bandana loosened on his head. To the surprise of everyone, the changes just stopped there, leaving Brendan a white humanoid Rayquaza. He looked down at himself. "Well, this is…interesting…"

"_That is as far as I will go, one who Rayquaza favors."_

"Rayquaza favors me?" asked a surprised Brendan.

"_Uh, yeah."_

"Oh, okay."

"Great, how many other damn 'Chosen Ones' we got here?" grumbled Wes.

"Um, actually…" Lucas started.

"Oh, shut up," Wes snarled venomously, causing the younger boy to clam up.

"Wes, you're so badass!" Michael gushed, like a true fanboy.

Wes laughed and ruffled the boy's hair. "Yes I am, kid. Yes I am."

Taze's eyes began to glow with a higher intensity. _"I have given you the power to take either form if you wish, that of complete human or complete Rayquaza. Now as for your mate..."_ He turned to May, who gave him a confused look. _"I'm afraid by a promise our race made to Arceus, father of all things, I cannot make her a female Rayquaza. However, I could change her into a Latias. Rayquaza and Latias have been very close these last few months, it seems like a fitting choice."_

May's eyes widened in horror. "Wait. WAIT A MINUTE! I don't want to be his mate! I don't even WANT to be a Latias-"

"_A Latias would look good in contests,"_ Max told her.

That clearly changed her mind. "Oh, okay then." Taze shrugged and began the transformation. Slowly white down grew around the upper half of her body. Her face became red while her nose and mouth melded into a muzzle of sorts, a small pentagon the only white spot remaining on her forehead. Her eyes widened as they lightened into a strong yellow. Her ears slid to the top of her head and elongated into triangular tufts. Two hard red wing-like protrusions like those of a jet plane broke out through the back of her shirt. Her arms shrunk, her hands turned into small claws, and red armor grew around her forearms. Unseen by everyone, the red armor covered her body from her lower chest down towards her feet, which became rather short and stubby. The upper part of her chest, which had grown considerably, was covered in white feathers with a bit of red coming up to the center and a blue triangle mark on her belly. She looked down at herself, noticing she was now levitating off the ground above the tattered remains of her clothing. "…Great. I miss my legs already."

"Yay! Now we have a sister who can give us high-flying piggyback rides!" Max cheered.

"Hooray!" cried Jirachi. May sweatdropped.

Brendan glowered, "Wait, what makes you think I'd date her? Anyway, she's already got a boyfriend or twenty."

May seemed upset, "Hey! What do you mean by that?"

"Drew."

"Hey, just because he has a crush on me;...", The two continued to argue.

Taze sweatdropped as he looked at the pair that was not a pair just yet. He had not explained everything to the not-yet-couple, like the fact that May would only give birth to twins, or that she and Brendan would be having a rather large family.

He then turned his attention to Dawn and Lucas. _"Your turn, now."_ He smiled warmly as he saw the couple immediately take each other's hand, touched by their devotion to each other. He took some time to think, he needed to keep these two together... he couldn't do the same thing he did with Brendan since Palkia never got along with Latias (and who could blame him?). He couldn't make Dawn into a female Palkia because that would break the code with the father of all things. Suicune or any of the legendary birds (or mutts) were not compatible with Palkia... Palkia had impressed on Lucas its anger at the three prophets who had imprisoned him and Dialga in an alternate dimension, so all of them were out of the question. Taze smiled as he came across one of the last of the legendaries that could either have a female form or was female themselves, he mentally smacked himself for not thinking of it earlier.

Taze's eyes began to glow a deep jungle green as Dawn's skin began changing into different shades of green. Her eyes grew large, round, and very blue. Small clear insect wings grew out her back as her shirt busted apart. Her eyes lightened till they looked like glass as her rims gained a pitch-black lining. Her fingers became slightly stubbier as her arms thinned considerably, looking almost like celery stalks. Her hat came off as her hair grew up and turned a light green with a dark green tip. Her head rounded out a little; and all in all she made a very beautiful Celebi morph. Rui cooed, and Wes rolled his eyes. The others hadn't said anything for a while, so continued to say nothing. "Whoa…" she whispered, looking at her hands, and yet not seeing them at the same time. "I can see…_everything…_past, present, future…it's…it's incredible…"

Lucas looked at Dawn, he couldn't say he hated her new look. Taze immediately started changing Lucas. His skin color drained away leaving him a pale gray-white. Slowly pink designs began to draw themselves over his hardening skin. His shirt and coat shredded apart as his shoulders grew into round shield-like plates, each one with a giant pearl imbedded in it. His hair receded as his skull thickened and his face moved inward until he had a helmet-like plate coming over his eyes and going down his back. Two rows of wing-like blades grew out of his back, on either side of the helmet armor. "And now I'm Palkia! Awesome! Practically a perfect fit for Dawn, too, time and space and all that."

"Uh, is that safe?" asked an anxious Wes. "Couldn't they destroy the universe with that much power?"

Taze shook his head. _"No, they do not have the same amount of power as the real things. They still have a considerable amount of power nonetheless."_

"Well, there goes my plan to recreate the world in my own image," joked Lucas.

Taze glanced around at the few remaining humans, there weren't many left that he hadn't changed yet. He initiated a private conversation with Timothy. _"What should we do to the squinty-eyed one?"_

"_Well..."_

All of a sudden, there was a rather small explosion

"Listen, is that a voice I hear?" A grating female voice said.

"It's speaking to me loud and clear," said a feminine male voice.

"Melting on the wind..."

"Past the stars..."

"And in your ears!" cried a third, whining voice.

"Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace..."

"Dashing hope, bringing fear in its place!"

"A rose by any other name is just as sweet..."

"When everything's worse, our work is complete!"

"Jessie!" a rather hideous woman with long ugly red hair and a white outfit with a big red 'R' on the front shouted.

"And it's James!" added a very effeminate blue-haired man in a similar outfit.

"And Meowth, now dat's a name!" cried a plain and very weak-looking Meowth.

"Putting the do-gooders in their place..." said Jessie.

"...Team Rocket..." continued James.

"In your face!" finished Meowth.

-That's Right! - Spoke up a Wobbufett.

-Yeah! Yeah! - said a Mime Jr.

Everyone groaned. "Oh, come on, not these guys…" Brock complained.

Pikachu sighed unhappily. –Here we go again.-

Wes snorted. "These losers give bad names to thieves everywhere, including me."

"But you're an ex-thief," pointed out Rui.

Wes grunted. "So? Just by being near them, I can feel my coolness quotient dropping considerably…"

Michael gasped in horror. "No! Anything but that!"

Timothy's eye twitched. _"Rockets…must…KILL!"_

"_No, Timothy, don't! There are far crueler things we can do to them…"_ Taze quickly intervened. Timothy paused and listened to the elder Mew as Taze explained what he had in mind.

"Look at all those rare Pokémon!" Meowth stated, rubbing his paws gleefully.

"There has to be at least one legendary from every region here!" James remarked.

"How fortunate that we should just happen to stumble upon them while setting up an ambush for the twerps! Where are they anyway?" Jessie asked. The remaining humans sweatdropped, insulted that the idiot trio hadn't noticed them at all.

Meowth's eye took on a crazy gleam. "We can take all these Pokémon and give 'em to the boss for a private zoo!"

Jessie and James looked at Meowth curiously. "A private zoo?" James questioned.

Meowth smiled "Think about it! The boss could be having a real stressed day of running Team Rocket, then he comes home and takes a walk through his nice private zoo and the beauty of the Pokémon refreshes him! Then he'll say, 'Ah, the beauty of this zoo has refreshed me, it's good Meowth and his friends got me all these Pokémon for it! I should give them a promotion!' We'll be rich"

"RICH!!" echoed Jessie and James greedily. Everyone else sweatdropped

Taze made an evil giggle that really scared everyone else because you don't usually hear a Mew giggle evilly very often. _"Okay Timothy, time to have some fun. Start by turning the squinty-eyed guy into a female Meowth."_

Timothy giggled. _"Ok... but first we need to deal with those two idiots..."_

"_Mind if I join in?" _Ash asked telepathically.

Timothy blinked._"Daddy? How'd you hear what we were saying?"_

Ash chuckled. _"Just because I've just been changed doesn't mean I'm level 1, son. Let's do this! I've been dying to get rid of these three buffoons for years!"_

"_Yes, let's," _Taze agreed. Ash and Taze began concentrating. Ash's eyes didn't glow, although his pupils seemed to disappear from their sockets.

James began to feel strange as his arms thinned out, becoming as thin as a broom handle with spherical joints. His hair parted and turned an even darker blue before stretching to either side of his head, giving him a huge bald spot. White gloves seemed to grow onto his hands as he shrunk and his uniform slipped off, revealing an ovular red and white body. His face squashed so that his eye's seemed to be taking up most of his forehead, his nose vanished, and big red spots formed on his cheeks.

While this was happening, Jessie's hair parted and started to stand up, the top of it becoming a light yellow while the bottom turned a dark orange. Her uniform was torn apart as four long spikes grew out of her back. She looked as if she was gaining weight fast and shrinking rapidly as her body became plump with a red top and a yellow underpart. Her hips became yellow as her legs thinned out and turned a solid black before ending in large red two-clawed feet. Her face pushed out into a long flat puckering bill. Her neck widened out, becoming a solid black. Red feathers grew all over her arms and hands. Her fingers and thumbs were replaced by white claws. All of her cloths that weren't torn away by the spikes were burnt off by the fire that came from the long yellow tail with a flaming tip that grew out from behind her.

Both former Team Rocket Members stared at themselves in horror as Meowth's jaw dropped. Then all three of them started screaming, while Ash and Taze smirked and everyone else laughed.

-Heh. About time! Never thought I'd see the day!- Pikachu remarked.

-YAY! DADDY!- Mime Jr. squealed in delight as he leaped onto and hugged the elder Mr. Mime that James had become.

'I'm…I'm…oh god, I'm a mime! It's my worst nightmare realized!!! James screamed.

-And I'm so…SO…UGLY!!!!!!- Jessie wailed, hot steaming tears pouring out from her bulbous eyes.

-It's an improvement, if you ask me…- commented Wobbuffet. Meowth quietly agreed.

Taze smirked and turned towards Brock_. "And now for the squinty-eyed one."_

"_My turn! My turn!" _Timothy cried joyfully. He began to glow. For a moment Meowth was scared he was the next to be targeted, until he smelled a pleasant aroma behind him.

Brock felt strange for a minute. Slowly, a warm feeling rushed over him as tan fur covered his body. His fingers merged from five to three then became stubby paws with claws at the ends. His eyes opened wider to reveal thin cat's-eye slits, and his ears moved to the top of his head, where they became black and brown triangles. His hair receded into his head as four whiskers grew out of his cheeks and two more grew out of the top of his head, where a golden charm appeared. His cloths fell off as he shrank down to the size of a common Meowth. His feet became long and three-toed. A large fluffy tail with a curl on the end grew out behind him. The tip of his feet and his tail were covered in light brown fur. A look of horror swept across Brock's face as he, quite suddenly, became…a she.

Taze turned to Meowth, _"If you agree to leave your evil ways you can have her."_

"I... uhh…Okay…" said a very confused Meowth.

-Don't I get a say in this? - Brock protested, horrified at the thought of being Meowth's mate.

Taze shrugged. _"Let's have a vote, shall we? Who says that Brock should have a say in his fate?" _He looked around the group. Somewhere in the distance a Criketune chirped.

"_Any against?"_

All hands shot up, including those of the Torterra, who hadn't done anything for a while.

-NO! NO WAY!- Brock screamed

The Mewtwo family glanced at one another, nodded, and as one their eyes started glowing. A rainbow surge of energy surrounded Brock and started to change her memories and instincts. Within moments, everything that had been the rather lecherous and perverted human Brock was swept away, leaving a pristine Pokemon behind, unclouded by human thoughts. Following her new programming, she immediately pounced upon her chosen mate, selected by the legendaries. Meowth yelped in alarm. "WAAUUCKK! NOT THE FACE, NOT THE FACE—oh. OHHH. That feels good. Oh yeah, keep it up baby, keep it up…" They all sweatdropped and looked away.

"_Okay, uh…I'm getting tired and the hour's getting rather late, so let's finish this up before the sun sets, okay?" _Taze said, quickly drawing attention away from the orgy behind him.

-Wait, what about us? You can't leave us like this!- James interrupted.

-Especially not with such HIDEOUS features!- Jessie wailed.

"_Actually, I can. But you're right, I shouldn't just leave you like this." _Taze's eyes flashed, and abruptly the ex-Rockets were teleported away; James and Mime Jr. to a circus where they lived happily ever after, and Jessie to Blaine's Magmar on Cinnabar Island, where she did not live quite as happily ever after. Wobbuffet, abruptly realizing he was free, eagerly ran off into the wild, never to be seen again. _"There, now that that's taken care of…"_ He turned towards the trio from Orre.

"Ah, wait, didn't I already point out that I DON'T want to be changed?" Wes said anxiously.

"But you'll be much cooler as a Pokemon!" Michael said.

Wes paused. "You think?"

"Definitely! And much handsomer, too!" Rui agreed.

Wes brightened. "Oh. Well in that case, by all means proceed."

And so Taze did.

Fur as dark purple as the tail of the original Mewtwo began to grow all over Wes's body. As Taze's eye began to glow green, small electric bursts of purple energy surrounded him. Wes shrank until he was the size of Taze. His clothes slipped off his body as his hands and feet became shorter and stubbier. A long dark tail grew up behind Wes as his face pushed out into a small muzzle. His ears moved to the top of his head and became two small triangles. As the changes completed, a crackling aura of dark energy surrounded Wes. Taze fell to the ground breathing heavily.

"Ooooohhh," said a very impressed Michael, Jirachi, and Max, who found him very cool indeed.

"_What have you done to me?" _Wes projected, rather intrigued by the dark power welling up within him.

"_I have turned you into a breed of Mew that died off millions of years ago, a Mew that gained its power from shadows and darkness like a ghost, but a Mew that also was not naturally evil."_

"_Oh. Cool," _said a satisfied Wes.

"_Now,"_ Taze projected looking at Rui and Michael. _"To finish your family." _Taze's eye's glowed with their vibrant emerald green glow.

"_Family?" _Wes questioned before he noticed Rui shrinking.

As she shrank, Rui's body was covered with soft white fur, her body reforming into the slender body of a Mew. A long elegant tail grew behind her as her clothing seemed to melt away into nothing. A small dainty muzzle grew from her face as her eyes swelled up to take up most of her head. Her ears moved up to become cat-like triangles atop her head, and her arms and legs became stubby as she would have little use for them. _"Ooh…I'm so…adorable!" _she squealed. _"Wes, aren't I pretty?"_

"_Well, I guess," _Wes grunted. _"Could be curvier, though…" _She smacked him with her tail, predictably.

Michael also shrank until he was much smaller than the others. He grew a tail that was shorter than the others as his body sprouted light gray fur. His eyes swelled up, taking up most of his head. They almost seemed bigger than the others. His ears also became cat-like triangles and his arms and legs became tiny little stubs on his body. _"Dude…this is so awesome! Wait'll my mom sees this! And…"_ His face paled. _"Oh crap…Jovi will think I'm a doll and play with me or something…"_

"_Now that that is done we must finish what we started."_ Taze turned to Ash _"All of you lock your minds on me, and you, Chosen One, think of Mewtwo. I well focus on your memories of him and the residual Mewtwo energy surrounding you so that we can teleport there all at once."_

"_Wait--First... Since I'm a Mewtwo, I'll probably live forever or at least a long time, Right?"_ Ash interrupted.

Taze nodded. _"Of course, your blood is the same as mine, we don't get old, just keep living."_

"_What about Pikachu and my other Pokémon though? They DO get old."_

Misty started. _"Hey, yeah, I didn't think of that. We'll all outlive our Pokemon!"_ Everyone else immediately became concerned. None of them wanted to be around so long that their closest friends died out. They all suddenly realized that immortality might have its drawbacks.

Taze thought for a minute. _"I don't know about the rest of your Pokémon but..."_

"_But..."_Ash pressed hopefully.

"_There is a ritual designed for Pikachus. It was created after all the Mewchus died out, but there's no way to tell if it will work... I am willing to try it, though, if Jean Luc is."_

Pikachu nodded, giving his consent. –Sure, why not?-

Taze took a paw to his mouth and bit down until he detected the metallic taste of blood. Using his claws he made a small cut in Pikachu's paw, ignoring the mouse's flinch and reflexive release of electricity. Placing his bleeding paw over Pikachu's, he put his head back and let out a long soft "Mew." A drop of blood spilled from the wound before it healed, the blood flowing into Pikachu's own wound and causing it to heal as well.

Slowly, Pikachu's fur grew a fraction thicker and lightened into a whitish shade. His black markings stayed as his cheeks lightened to a more pinkish color. His ears thickened a bit as his tail rounded out and became more flexible. "_Whoa, it worked,"_ Pikachu unknowingly projected. His eyes widened in shock _"Did I say that?"_

"_Yes you did,"_ Taze said, very pleased. _"Welcome to the family Jean Luc."_

"_Great, the Pikachu gets it but nobody else does. All our Pokemon are still going to die," _Wes complained bitterly. Everyone else's melancholy deepened.

"_Wait, I thought we were given the power to change anyone we wanted and make them immortal too," _Dawn said suddenly. _"Couldn't we just do that to our Pokemon?"_

Taze sweatdropped. _"Oh…yeah…I forgot about that."_ Everyone facefaulted. _"Now may we finish this?"_ Taze asked Ash, trying to change the subject.

Ash nodded. _"Of course."_

Within seconds their minds were locked, and in a giant flash of light the entire party of people and Pokémon vanished.

Somewhere, much further away, there was another giant flash of light as the group arrived in a distant clearing, where they immediately collapsed.

"_Ow,"_ moaned Max, Jirachi, and Michael.

"_What a trip…" _grunted Brendan. _"Are you okay, May?"_

"_No," _May said, her voice muffled since she was squashed underneath the Rayquaza morph. _"Not really."_

"_Waah! I didn't think you'd be dragging us ALL along," _Ash projected.

"_Well, I'm only taking Timothy with me to see Mewtwo. Besides, someone will have to look after the children while three of us adults are away."_ Taze giggled as he winked at Ash and Misty.

Ash and Misty blushed and faced away from each other...then rushed off to do…something…behind some nearby bushes. The others sweatdropped, and Pikachu rolled his eyes. Wes' eyes bulged when Rui gave him a look that suggested they do the same thing as Ash and Misty, causing Michael to snicker.

"_Uncle Taze? Where are Mommy and Daddy going?"_ Timothy asked

"_You'll find out when you're older. Come along, Timothy,"_ Taze said as he floated away. Timothy simply shrugged and followed.

As they neared the new psychic presence which could only be Mewtwo, Taze became aware of something. Though the psychic energy was powerful, it was nowhere near as strong as he had been told, and he had heard about Mewtwo's potential from Mew Prime herself.

Taze's worries were confirmed when they reached a cave in the side of a cliff, inside was Mewtwo in all his glory…or what was left of it. He seemed a sorry sight to Taze's eyes, his tail was drooping to the ground, his muscles where thin and frail, and he barely seemed to be able to hover off the ground. _"Me...Mewtwo?"_ the horrified Taze questioned

"_...A Mew...And what would you be doing here?"_ Mewtwo asked weakly, his telepathic voice dull and fading, nearly inaudible.

Taze swallowed. _"I have been looking for you because word spread of your amazing powers; I was hoping you might be able to recover some lost memories."_

Mewtwo shook his head sadly. _"I'm sorry, but...It seems the cloning process used to create me wasn't perfect. I'm not as young as I used to be, even two years ago…" _He coughed weakly, flecks of blood splattering the floor. _"I am dying…my cells are degenerating…I don't have much time left."_

Taze shook his head sadly. _"It seems you need my help more then I need yours."_

"_I doubt even Mew Prime could do anything for me in my current condition," _Mewtwo said sadly.

Taze thought for a moment. _"I can heal you, but the process will cost you some years. I can offer you something you never had before, though."_

"_What's that?" _Mewtwo asked suspiciously.

"_A family."_

"_...Alright. I've got nothing to lose."_

"_I'm afraid you do indeed,"_ Taze said as his eyes began to glow a lime green.

Slowly Mewtwo began to show signs of revitalization. His body regained strength and his tail stood up. However, his body also began to shrink, becoming progressively smaller until he was the size of Timothy. His mind began to reorganize its way of thinking; soon Mewtwo saw the world as a child would. Taze's eyes died down as Mewtwo began to fly around him and Timothy, inspecting them curiously

"_Timothy, meet your twin brother,"_ Taze said.

"_Hello."_ Timothy greeted.

"_Hi,"_ the younger Mewtwo replied.

"_Mewtwo could you possibly try to unlock Timothy's memories now?"_ Taze inquired.

"_Huh?"_

"_Timothy has been through a horrible experiment, and half of his memories have been erased. Could you try to restore them?"_ Taze explained.

"_Umm..."_ Mewtwo got a worried look on his face, _"Are you sure that's a good idea?"_

"_If you cannot do it, then there are none who can."_

Mewtwo shook his head _"It's not that... these memories... they..."_

Taze blinked. _"Yes?"_

He sighed. _"Never mind. I'll do what you say..." _Mewtwo held out a paw and his eyes began glow purple.

"_Ah…" _Timothy froze up as horrible memories flooded out from where they had been sealed. People--his family--dying...Pokémon Dying... Torture...pain…oh, the AGONY… _"St--Stop it! STOP IT NOW!!!!"_

A powerful blast of blue energy resonated from Timothy, slamming both Mewtwo and Taze into the nearby cavern wall. Timothy then curled into a ball and began to shake in fright, eyes wide and unseeing.

As the blue energy dissipated, Taze and Mewtwo used their Recover techniques to restore themselves. Taze shook his head _"I'm sorry Mewtwo, I shouldn't have asked you to do that…and I knew what had happened..."_ He made a decision._ "Mewtwo, I need you to do me a favor."_

"_Yes?"_ the super-clone asked warily, recalling what the last 'favor' had wrought just a few moments ago.

"_I need you to rewrite his life. Only the memories he's lacking, make them something kind."_

Mewtwo nodded. _"Of course."_

The Mew sighed. _"I'm sorry, Timothy,"_ Taze projected to no one _"I failed you.."_

- - -

Ash and Misty floated out of the bushes. Misty was constantly grooming her fur to remove sticks and dirt, while Ash was smiling from ear to ear.

"_What happened?"_ Max asked. _"Where'd you two go?"_

"_We were...sparring."_ Misty said, blushing

"_Yeah sparring."_ Ash said _"Just a lot of long hard wild sparring."_

The others looked at each other. _"Sparring,"_ May said flatly. _"Riiight."_

"_We could spar, if you wanted to-"_ Brendan started, a little too eagerly, until May used telekinesis to smash a rock into his head repeatedly. _"Ow! Ow! Make it stop! Make it stop!"_

"_Why?" _she asked cheerfully, bashing him harder. _"I thought you wanted to spar!"_ The others sweatdropped. Wes laughed. Max and Jirachi didn't get it.

In a flash of light Taze reappeared with Timothy, as well as a small purple Mewtwo.

"_Hello everyone," _Taze projected.

"_...Where's Mewtwo? Who's that kid? And why do you sound so down?"_ Ash asked, rather worried.

"_Hello Ash, or maybe I should say…dad?"_ The small Mewtwo projected to Ash. Taze remained silent as he turned his gaze to Timothy and the happy look on his face.

Ash was naturally very surprised. _"M-Mewtwo? D-Dad? B-But, I thought..."_

"_He gained accelerated aging from the original cloning process. I had to remove it." _Taze explained.

"_I---I see..."_

"_You will have to take care of him as well as Timothy now."_

Suddenly, a young man with Red Hair stumbled upon the group. "Wow! I've never seen so many legendaries!! And... what are those?"

_"Uh-oh, it's Todd!"_, this from Ash, slapping his forehead,_ "He must have saw the flash from the large teleport!"_  
_  
"Umm... Oops?"_, Taze said, sweatdropping.

A glint of mischief was seen in Timothy's eyes a moment before they glowed blue. The first thing Todd Snap noticed was the fine layer of short fur that began to grow on his body. The fur was red, much like his own hair, he felt his ears climb to the top of his head, and they slowly became triangular. His eyes grew to a tremendous size as a small muzzle pushed out of his face; a long tail burst its way through the back of his pants. His fingers became short and stubby as did his toes, he wouldn't need them for much as he felt the tremendous mental ability come to his mind. Slowly Todd began to shrink, his pants fell away well his shirt and camera shrunk with him, his fur became more puffy and his tail shortened, his eyes became bigger. When Taze finished a small toddler mew floated were Todd once stood.

"_Pa--pa?" _The young Mew asked.

"_He's your papa!"_, Timothy said, pointing at Taze. The Mew quickly snuggled up.

_"Why?"_

_"I think that's our son's way of saying 'Thank You',"_ Misty noted.

"_I have done everything I can. Do not be afraid, though, I know you can do this. I have faith in you." _He rose into the air alongside his new son. _"I'm afraid the time has come for me to return to my family. I will return in one month to see how you all are doing."_

"_Goodbye!"_ Most of the group chorused.

"_Bye-bye, Uncle Taze!"_ Timothy called to the Mew who had saved him..

Taze put something into Ash's mind _"That is the location of a nearby Mew colony. Give it to your children when they mature."_ Ash nodded.

Taze slowly floated over and gave Timothy a Mew hug, a rainbow tear falling from his eye and dissipating into the atmosphere. Releasing the Mewtwo, he bid everyone farewell once again and shot upward, alongside his son, at mind-blowing speeds. Soon there was nothing more than a white dot in the sky to show the Mews' location, and soon after not even that was visible.

- - -

_In Orbit_

Taze and Todd slowed down as the white bubble of psychic energy came into view. Taze smiled as he saw his beautiful wife, Mewn, and their new child Aleena, waiting for him. He presented his new son Todd that was given to him by the youth he had rescued to his wife.

It had been a long and trying day, but at last, he was finally home.

-- -

_Some time later…_

Ash and Misty lay next to each other, staring happily at the two sleeping baby Mewtwos nearby.

Misty looked at Ash, he could tell there was something she wasn't telling him. _"Ash?"_

"_Yeah, Misty?"_

"_I found something out recently."_

"_W-What?"_

"_Ash I...I'm...I'm expecting."_

"_Expecting what?"_

"_Ash I'm pregnant."_

Ash turned beet red, and fainted dead away. Misty sweatdropped.

"_Well, he took that about as badly as I expected…_

THE END


	19. Dino Mite!

Dino-Mite!

Disclaimer: All original characters and Pokemon owned by Ri2. Everything else is owned by Nintendo, The Pokémon Company and Pokémon USA.

This Story done by Ri2

…

65 million years ago. Give or take a few hundred thousand.

The Great Burning Circle (also known as the Sun) shone down brightly on the bustling city of Dinotropolis. Immense cyclopean buildings carved from stone and fitted with enormous blocks jutted into the sky, thousands of towering skyscrapers carved out from the heart of a mountain. Winged beasts soared through the skies, carrying messages, passengers, or just flying about for fun. Gigantic creatures walked through the streets, carrying tourists and commuters from place to place, while somewhat smaller beings pulling large barrows followed behind to pick up the waste occasionally dropped by the bigger ones. Colorful (and much smaller) citizens frolicked about the streets, bridges, and walkways of the immense city, covered in furs and scales and feathers of every hue and texture imaginable. Dinotropolis was the crowning achievement of a civilization almost a hundred million years old, one that had long ago managed to work out all the problems of racism and prejudice and predation (among each other, anyway) and now lived in relative peace and harmony, channeling their once-voracious appetites and violent urges to more peaceful and productive means.

It was also a civilization that was about to be wiped off the face of the universe, forever.

"We're going to die?!" the stunned Rampardos leader, Bonehead, asked incredulously.

"It would seem that way, yes," the sage Bastiodon king, Hornface, said with a heavy sigh.

"Great, and just when I was looking forward to retirement, something like this happens…figures," groaned the Aerodactyl queen, Skywing.

"Let me get this straight. We're going to die?!" Bonehead demanded again.

The Raptorex emperor Gripclaw rolled his eyes. "Yes, Boneskull, for the tenth time, we are going to die. And can someone please shut that idiot up already?"

'That idiot' was the Compsy chief Killerdeath running around the Council room shrieking his tiny head off, as pretty much all of his race did when faced with a crisis. The Cradily Strongroot, favored seedling of the Great Overphylum which governed nearly all plant life on the planet, snatched up the little dinosaur in her jaws and began sucking on his head. "Thank you," Gripclaw said, as everyone sighed in relief. "Now, Professor Gingko, if you could please explain the situation to everyone present?"

"It would be my pleasure," the scientist Archeavis said, adjusting the glasses perched on his beak and fluffing out his feathers, which contrasted with the pure white of the lab robe worn by all members of his profession. "Now, esteemed members of the Council of Ruling Species, if you would all kindly look at the display screen on the wall…" He gestured at a large screen, which lit up to show a tremendous fireball streaking across the solar system. "You will see that an asteroid of incredible size is hurtling towards our planet. My team has estimated it will impact our planet in only a few months, and when it does, it will wipe out approximately seventy-five percent of all life on the planet and begin an ice age that will last for many thousands of years. An ice age that our reptilian kind, sad to say, is not even remotely equipped to handle. The majority of us who don't die of starvation and thirst after the initial impact destroys all of our crops and herds will probably freeze to death in the years to come. The world will be changed forever, and by the time the ice thaws and the skies are clear of dark clouds again, we reptiles will be a distinct minority and the hated mammals will expand and propagate like the rodents they are to hold sway over, well, everything. At least," the Professor said, adjusting his glasses to better see the horrified looks on the Council's faces at his grim report and the rather graphic video of everything he had said would occur that Gingko's research team had whipped up. "That's what we think will happen. It's actually the most positive outcome…the other one is where the planet gets smashed apart by the asteroid and all life on our Urth is extinguished forever. So, any questions?"

"Yes, why are you named Ginkgo if you're not a Living Plant like Strongroot?" Bonehead asked. Everyone stared at him. "What? It's a valid question, isn't it?" The exasperated Ankilo Headsman, Thorntail, rolled his eyes and smacked the Rampardos in the head with his club-like tail. Bonehead didn't notice, naturally.

"Any other questions?" the Professor asked again.

"Yes: is there any possible way for us to stop this?" asked the aptly named Spike the Stegron. "The whole mass extinction thing, that is? And the victory of our enemies, the mammals?"

"Yeah, why don't we just blow it up?" suggested the somewhat trigger-happy and explosion-loving General Scytheblade the Kabutops.

"With what?" asked the Brontonadon leader, Bigfoot.

"With…a…a blowing up thingie!" the General suggested. "One of those things we shoot at them damn dirty mammals when they eat our eggs and try to steal our womenfolk! Blow this thing up like we blow them up, so we don't have to worry about a world where those hairballs rule!"

"We don't have a 'blowing-up-thingie'," Ginkgo said, making air quotes with his claw. "Big enough to destroy the asteroid. My team's been studying it and working frantically ever since we realized its trajectory, but by my calculations we don't have enough explosive material in the whole world to destroy that rock, even if we brought it all together and fired it up in a big spaceborne missile."

"Could we possibly leave the planet? Before the asteroid hits, I mean?" Bigfoot asked.

Ginkgo shook his head. "You know as well as I do how convoluted and backwards our space program is. There's no way we could build enough ships to evacuate absolutely everyone on the planet, there just isn't enough time! And it doesn't help that our population is so big, either…and even if we did escape into space, where would we go?" He shrugged helplessly. "Our planet is the only one in the solar system that can sustain life. Nowhere else but here would we be able to thrive and grow. There's nowhere else for us to go."

"Couldn't we go underground?" suggested Spike. "In subterranean caverns, and wait all this out?"

Ginkgo shook his head again. "It'd be a deathtrap. The seismic activity caused by the asteroid hitting us would almost certainly cause any big cave or tunnels we dug to collapse rather quickly. You can still try going down under if you want, but I can't guarantee how long you'll manage to survive."

"How come Rayquaza isn't handling this?" Hornface asked.

"Yes, isn't this usually the sort of thing he takes care of?" Skywing added.

Gripclaw sighed. "Normally, yes, but…Rayquaza just happens to be attending a convention in another dimension, and there's no telling when he'll get back. 'Mystic Dragoncon' or something."

Everyone groaned. "A convention? At this time of year?!" Bonehead complained.

"Actually, since it's another dimension, it is convention season there," Ginkgo pointed out. "But, since Palkia and Dialga might be there too, from what I've heard…and they're almost certain to get into a fight…the space-time continuum's likely to be screwed up, so Rayquaza won't be back in time to save us. He'll probably show up in another century or two…or maybe even yesterday, what with how time paradoxes work. But since he hasn't, that means we're all still in danger of going extinct." Everyone groaned again.

"I don't suppose we're going to get any help from those idiots Groudon and Kyogre, then…" grumbled Spike.

"We asked them," said Gripclaw with a sigh. "Groudon, when asked if he could hollow out some stable caverns for us to store our populations in to survive the asteroid and use his power to keep us from being crushed by cave-ins and quakes, said, 'No way losers, I need all that space for my stuff!' Kyogre just laughed in our faces and swam off, singing about how she'd be just fine since the meteor would wipe out all us stupid 'land dwellers' while she and her fish and marine reptiles would be fine."

Ginkgo smirked. "I decided not to tell her that the upper layers of the oceans would probably start boiling and become uninhabitable for a few decades after the asteroid hits…let her figure that out for herself." The others laughed, though there was a bitter undertone to it. "There's not much the other legendaries can do, either. Jirachi's asleep and won't be able to grant wishes for another few hundred years, the Unown are…unknown, and nearly every other existing legend lacks the power to stop something like this or give us a way out. Manaphy, oddly enough, was willing to help…sort of."

"Sort of?" asked Bigfoot.

Gripclaw sighed. "He said that if we gave him a thousand of our most attractive women of all species, he'd keep them safe in his undersea temple until the climate became stable again, then use them as a harem to repopulate the Urth."

This got several angry growls from the Council members, especially the females. "I'll kill him!" Skywing shrieked.

"I'll help. Fragger's had it coming for a long time now," snarled Scytheblade.

"With any luck, he'll be killed too when the asteroid hits," said Strongroot.

"Strongroot, where did Killerdeath go?" asked a puzzled Bonehead.

"I ate him."

"Oh, all right."

Hornface sighed wearily. "Our science is not strong enough, the legendaries either cannot or refuse to help us…is this truly the end of our civilization? After a hundred million years, is it just going to end like this?"

"Not necessarily," Ginkgo said. He fidgeted nervously. "There may be ONE solution…but you're not going to like it."

"It's gotta be better than getting hit by an asteroid and going extinct," commented Scytheblade.

"Well…we're still going to get hit. And we're still going to die. But we might be able to come back," Ginkgo began.

Everyone stared at him blankly. "I'm not the only one who didn't get that, right?" asked a confused Bonehead.

"I didn't get it either, when he first told me about it…but it'll make sense in a minute. You won't like it, but it'll make sense," said Gripclaw.

Ginkgo reached into a pocket sewn into his robe and pulled out a glistening chunk of amber. It seemed to glow with a mysterious inner light as everyone looked at it. "This is the Life Amber," the professor explained. "A gift from Mew."

The Council gasped. "The Lifegiver?!" asked an astonished Bigfoot.

"She hasn't been seen in over…um…a really long time!" said Scytheblade.

"She appeared to me soon after I finished making inquiries to the other legends and just about gave up all hope," Ginkgo explained. "She gave me this amber and said that it could be the salvation of our people."

"But it's just a hunk of…whatever amber is," commented Bonehead. "How's that going to save us?"

"As anyone who's ever gone to our history museums knows, very old petrified amber sometimes contains preserved insects and DNA from our ancestors millions of years ago. This amber will do the same thing for our people…essentially, it will preserve everything that is us. Our culture. Our history. Our knowledge and wisdom and science. Our genetic material. Even our very reptilian souls!" His eyes glittered with joy. "By using the amber, we can ensure that some part of us, other than our bones, survives to be discovered in the distant future!"

The Council members didn't look particularly impressed or relieved. "And this helps us in the present…how?" asked Skywing dryly.

"It sounds to me like we're still going to die and them stinking mammals are gonna inherit the Urth," Scytheblade complained.

"I don't wanna die…" Bonehead whimpered.

"We will die, yes," Gripclaw admitted. "But if what the Professor has already briefed me on is true, it won't be for long. Or rather, it will be for long, but not forever."

The other Council members still had no clue what he was talking about, so Ginkgo elaborated. "Here's what will happen. The meteor will hit us, and we'll all die, either right away or agonizingly over time in the decades to come. Our civilization will be destroyed, our various species practically wiped out, and the mammals shall inherit the Urth. But! In the distant future, many years from now, our mammalian successors will dig up some artifacts of our grand and glorious age—assuming they evolve enough to the point that they're actually curious about what came before them—and one of them will be this piece of Life Amber. Perhaps they will study it for a while, and put it in a museum. Or, quite possibly--considering the tendencies of mammals in our time--they'll discard it, thinking it worthless."

"I'm starting to think this thing is worthless," Scytheclaw growled. The others muttered restlessly as well.

"I apologize, General, but you couldn't be more wrong. What the people of the future do with this Amber doesn't matter, not in the slightest. Because, should they happen to break it, or crack it open to examine the preserved contents…the power Mew put in it will be unleashed. A time-space ripple of sorts shall spread outwards, covering the whole world and traveling all the way back into the past, to the moment we infused the Amber with our essence in the first place. And then, through unimaginably complicated applications of paradox and temporal physics, it shall change the Urth of the future—rewrite all of history, for that matter!—to make the world of tomorrow what it would have been like if we had never gone extinct." Everyone's eyes widened, and the eyes of all the Council members were now focused on Ginkgo. The Archeavis smiled, showing his many pointed teeth. "Yes. I thought that would catch your attention."

"Then…this Amber…you're saying it will change the future? To make it into the world that would have existed if we weren't all about to be wiped out by an asteroid?" asked Hornface.

"A world where we reptiles continued to rule, instead of mammals?" Thorntail queried. "Where our civilization continued to exist, where life as we know it was not erased by a horrific extinction event?"

Ginkgo nodded energetically. "Precisely!"

"But…how will that help us now? We'll still die!" Spike protested agitatedly.

"Yes, we will…in this timeline!" Ginkgo said triumphantly.

"Uh?" said everyone else.

"The Amber, when cracked open, will release a time-space ripple that will change history so that the meteor never hit, remember? That means while we die now, when the Amber's power is released…it'll be as if none of it ever happened! So we'll all still be alive!" Ginkgo explained.

"Ohhhh," they all said.

"That's wonderful!" Skywing cried.

"I think I actually understood that!" said Bonehead.

"We're saved!" shouted Spike.

"Wait…does time even work like that?" asked a somewhat doubtful Strongroot.

Ginkgo shrugged. "I have no clue, I'm not a quantum physicist. But that's pretty much how Mew explained it to me, and I see no reason to doubt her."

"But…she's more of a lifegiver than a time traveler, isn't she?" asked Bigfoot, now somewhat skeptical. "So time warping isn't really her area of expertise, is it? How'd she whip up something like this? Not to doubt her or anything."

"Oh, she has her ways," Ginkgo said, deciding not to tell the Council members that Mew had actually gotten the Life Amber by poking a stick with some tree sap on it up Dialga's nose while the dragon was sleeping to imbue it with chronal energies.

"It doesn't matter, anyway," Gripclaw said. "We now hold the salvation of our people in our claws, even if it may take millions of years for it to actually take effect. I believe our next course of action is obvious: we must infuse this Amber with the very essence of our people and civilization, so that eons from now we will be reborn anew!"

"There's just one thing that troubles me morally," said Thorntail, looking uncomfortable. "Professor, you said that in all likelihood it will be the mammals of the future who will find the Amber, since they will dominate the Urth in our absence. Now, I'm no fonder of their kind than the rest of us, seeing as how we've been struggling with them for millennia, but…if I understand you correctly, Ginkgo, you're saying that the cracking open of the amber will undo all the progress they may have made in our absence. Any evolution, any advancement, any action they will take in the centuries to come that might lead them to becoming a more civilized race, will be entirely erased. While I want our civilization to survive as much as the rest of you…to make it so that the ones who come after us never came into being? It does not seem…ethical, to me."

"What's the big deal? They're just stinking mammals!" Scytheclaw protested.

"Even mammals might be able to change, over time," Thorntail countered. "Was there not a time, very long ago, when all of our species fought each other savagely, killing and feasting upon each other like mindless animals?" The other Council members looked at each other uneasily, admitting that was the case. "If we could change for the better, what's to say the mammals can't either?"

"Actually, Mew predicted by the time the mammals have evolved enough to dig up the Life Amber, they'll be rather ignorant, shortsighted, constantly fighting with themselves, destroying their planet, and capturing other intelligent but less-evolved species and forcing them to fight each other for fun, profit, and prestige," Ginkgo said.

"Oh. Well, in that case, they have to go," said Thorntail firmly, retracting his objections. The other Council members nodded in unanimous agreement.

…

And so the deed was done. The populace was made aware of their impending doom, and, after quite a lot of panicking and martial law, transferred their essences into the Life Amber using the process Mew had explained to Ginkgo, preserving a part of themselves for all time. A couple of months after that, the asteroid hit. Most of the people had killed themselves in advance so as not to get caught in the catastrophe, while others had headed for the wild in hopes that they could find a way to survive. Most of them were, naturally, wiped out, or died slowly over the next several decades as the planet cooled and the sun no longer shone in the sky. Groudon got caught in a cave-in caused by the asteroid's impact and was knocked out and entombed in stone for the next few million years. Kyogre had to hide in a very deep sea trench and go into hibernation to keep from getting boiled alive or choking on the polluted waters, and Manaphy was forced to eat the desperate aquatic life that had fled to his temple for safety so he wouldn't starve to death. The other Legends managed to survive by going into hibernation as well, but while they slept, a significant amount of the planet's total population died.

But some did survive, as did the mammals, and slowly they began to rebuild their populations and spread out to claim the new world. A few centuries later, Rayquaza returned from his convention, took one look at the radically altered planet, and cursed vehemently, swearing he was never going to drink with Dialga or Palkia again. He went to sulk for a while on Mars, rather depressed that the saurians had been wiped out, as he had been very fond of them. He wasn't sure if he was going to like their replacements half as much.

Millions of years passed. The mammals and other surviving lifeforms diversified into many different kinds of species and creatures. New Legendaries were born reflecting the living things of this new age. Eventually, one variety of hairless apes evolved into 'humans' and went on to rule the world through the use and control of 'Pokemon', which were pretty much every living thing that wasn't human.

All the while, Mew watched and waited for the Amber she had crafted to come into play. She knew exactly where the thing was buried, even went to check on it every now and then, but had not touched it or made any attempt to excavate it. She saw no reason to do so, not when the humans could do it for themselves sooner or later. She was very patient, and in no hurry to set the wheels of her plan into motion.

She had not been entirely honest with Ginkgo and the other saurians. They hadn't known that their people weren't the only ones Mew was trying to save. They hadn't guessed the full reasons for her help in creating the Life Amber to preserve the essence of their civilization. Only she, and the One she served, knew…and they certainly didn't plan on telling a soul. Not yet, anyway.

And so patiently she waited and waited, until the Amber was finally discovered when the humans, who by this time had become a fairly advanced people (though nowhere near as much as the saurians they had displaced), began digging in search of the past. They found fossils of the people and Pokemon that had come before them, eventually discovering the Life Amber and taking it to a laboratory for study.

It wouldn't be much longer now, Mew knew. The last sixty-five million years or so of waiting were about to pay off, big time.

…

"Can we go now?" Ash asked with a bit of a whine.

Misty gave Ash an annoyed look. "Ash, we just got here."

"Well, yeah, but…I'm ready to go! The city's gym should be open by now, and I gotta go get my badge before it closes for the day!" Ash complained.

"Ash, we're not going to be here all day. We'll be out of here with plenty of time for you to go and have your gym battle," Brock said, glancing briefly away from the display case he was looking at (as well as the reflection of a rather attractive tour guide he had been examining) to frown at his friend.

"But the gym leader's Pokemon'll probably be all tired out from all the other trainers by then, and won't give me the best fight they can!" Ash protested.

"Um, isn't that a good thing?" asked a confused Dawn. "Then you'll be able to get your badge pretty easily."

"I don't want to get it easily," Ash said in exasperation, rolling his eyes as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. His friends rolled their eyes at him, even Pikachu.

"Ash, it wouldn't hurt to spend some time with us, your best friends, for the brief time we're going to be together rather than running off to the gym at the first chance you get," May huffed, looking rather annoyed. "We're not going to be here long, so you should spend as much time as you can with us before we leave again!"

"Yeah, and besides, that's a stupid thing to worry about anyway. Gym leaders have lots of different Pokemon teams, they leave the tired ones at the Pokemon Center and swap them for fresh ones to use against the next challenger," Max informed Ash.

Ash blinked. "Oh…really? I didn't know that." Everyone sweatdropped.

Misty's eye twitched. "…You've been traveling with former gym leaders and fought active gym leaders for how many years and you didn't know that?!"

"I guess it must have slipped my mind," Ash said sheepishly, causing the others to groan.

"Pika pika," Pikachu said with a sigh, shaking his head.

Ash and his friends were currently in the History Museum of Canalave City, where Ash intended to get his sixth Sinnoh League badge. However, Ash's old friends Misty, May, and Max happened to be in town for reasons of their own (Misty because she was fed up with her sisters and wanted to see Ash, May allegedly because she wanted to try for ribbons in the Sinnoh region but also to see Ash, and Max because May had dragged him along against his will.), and they had all arranged in advance to spend a few days together. Now, while Ash was happy to see his traveling companions again (VERY happy, in Misty's case), he was unhappy that they wanted to spend the day looking around the city and then heading over to the gym instead of just going to the gym NOW and doing touristy stuff later. However, he seemed to be the only one who felt this way (even Pikachu had wanted to hang out with the girls, the traitor), and so they were looking around the museum. It had a fascinating exhibit on the history of Pokemon contests in Sinnoh, which appealed to May and Dawn, an excellent rock collection which Brock claimed to be fascinated by though everyone knew he was really looking for hot women, and an exhibit on dinosaurs and fossils that both Misty and Max liked but Ash did not, since he had seen so many actual prehistoric Pokemon by now that he found their bones and statues boring. And they didn't even have a fossil reanimator thing like they did at Oreburgh, so he couldn't see any ancient Pokemon getting brought to life, which would have been really cool. They did have an archaeological lab, but it wasn't open to the public, so he couldn't even check that out. (Not that he found that kind of thing interesting, anyway.)

And so Ash had to wait and suffer in silence, since his friends weren't going to let him just leave and meet back up with them later. And he wasn't sure how much he really wanted to abandon them for the day anyway, it wouldn't be the same going to a gym battle without his friends backing him up. Well, at least we're almost done here, he thought, absent-mindedly scratching Pikachu behind the ears and causing his friend to squeal pleasurably. Next place has GOTTA be more interesting than this.

Little did he know just how interesting things were about to become. There was a sudden explosion that shook the museum to its foundations and caused all the objects on display to rattle on their cases. Some fell off their pedestals and broke, much to the horror of the museum's curators, especially since half the stuff they had wasn't insured. Smoke and dust flew about, dimming the lights and causing the fire alarms to go off. "What was that?!" Dawn cried.

"An earthquake?" May suggested.

"No…something worse! There's some kind of trouble!" Ash said, surging to his feet.

"Did someone say trouble?"

"Make that double!" Everyone groaned as three silhouettes appeared out of the smoke.

"Listen, is that a voice I hear?"

"It's speaking to me loud and clear…"

"Melting on the wind…"

"Past the stars…"

"And in your ears!"

"Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace…"

"Dashing all hope, putting fear in its place!"

"A rose by every other name is just as sweet…"

"When everything's worse, our work is complete!"

"Jessie!" the red-haired hideous female member of Team Rocket cried as the smoke cleared, revealing herself in all her horror.

"And it's James!" James exclaimed as the smoke cleared, revealing the male Rocket in all his…unmanliness.

"And Meowth, now dat's a name!" added Meowth, the last and weakest (not that was saying much) of the trio.

"Putting the do-gooders in their place…" said Jessie.

"Team Rocket," James continued.

"We're in your face!" Meowth finished.

"Wooooobbuffet!" said the blue blob Wobbuffet, popping out of his Pokeball.

"Mime mime mime mime!" added the clownish Mime Jr.

"Team Rocket!" cried Ash, like he always did.

"Pipikachu!" Pikachu shouted, like he always did.

"Oh, so that's their new motto?" Misty asked, rather unimpressed.

"Looks that way," said May.

"Why do they keep changing it? It's kind of annoying…you get used to one motto, then they whip up something else to torture us with," Max complained.

"Hey! Our motto is NOT torture!" Jessie snapped.

"It is too," all the heroes said, bored. Jessie's face went as red as her hair.

"We do change it an awful lot, don't we?" James admitted, with a frown. "Why do we do that?"

"To make it look like we're actually doing something new rather than the same old thing every season so the writers don't can us," Meowth said.

"Ah, that makes sense."

"What're you three doing here?" Ash asked angrily.

"Why, robbing the museum of all its historical artifacts, of course!" Jessie said, as if it were obvious. "We're going to give them to the boss, so he can make a museum of his own!"

"…Wait, couldn't he just buy them legitimately, then? I thought the leader of Team Rocket was really rich," said a confused Dawn. "He must be, or else your whole organization would've gone bankrupt by now due to all the giant robots and vehicles you keep blowing up."

There was a very long awkward pause. "Um…" said James. "That's…actually a good point…"

"Well…um…yes, but he wouldn't have been able to buy THIS!" Jessie proclaimed, triumphantly holding out a small faintly glowing chunk of something.

"What's that?" asked May.

"It looks like a petrified booger," said Max.

Team Rocket facefaulted. "What're you talking about, you stupid twerp?! Dis's…um…what is it again?" Meowth asked, scratching his head and causing the heroes to facefault.

"An ultra-rare piece of amber several millions years old recently discovered nearby, believed by scientists to contain the DNA of a heretofore unheard of ancient Pokemon," James said, reading from a museum brochure.

"Yeah, that!" Jessie said.

"We're gonna give it to da boss, and by using his super-advanced cloning technology, he'll be able to breed a whole bunch of ancient Pokemon…which he'll den put in an amusement park on a tropical island off the coast, and force tourists to pay through da nose to come see them, and stay in da deluxe resort, and even buy one of dere own! And all da proceeds from dat park will go straight into Team Rocket to finance our plans to rule da world!" Meowth said eagerly. "And once he's even richer den ever, da Boss'll say, 'For helping me build this ultra-amazing amusement park and resort, Meowth and friends should be rewarded by getting a raise and promotions and all sorts of other neat stuff!'"

The heroes sweatdropped. "…That's one of their stupidest ideas yet, and that's saying something!" said an incredulous Brock.

"Wait…you got that idea from a movie, didn't you?" Max asked suspiciously.

"Uh…maybe…" Meowth said uneasily, his eyes darting about.

"Oh yeah, I remember that one. Didn't all the ancient Pokemon manage to escape from their pens and eat nearly everyone on the island?" Dawn recalled, causing May to blanche and the Rockets to go pale.

"Meowth, you never told us that!" Jessie shrieked.

"I didn't know, I never saw how da movie ended!" Meowth cried. "I always fell asleep around dat part…"

James sighed. "I knew this was a bad idea. We should've just stolen the rare bottlecap collection on display, like I suggested earlier!"

"Um, I have a question. If you guys were able to steal the amber, why'd you stop to talk to us?" Misty asked, raising a hand.

The Rockets glanced at each other, looking uncertain. "Umm…" said James.

"That's…a good question," admitted Jessie. The heroes facefaulted.

"Oh! Oh! I know! We stopped to steal Pikachu!" Meowth suggested.

"Yeah, Pikachu, right!" Jessie said, agreeing a little too eagerly. "Then we can get two goodies for the price of one!"

"Wait, isn't that sort of logic what usually gets us blasted off?" James pointed out.

"Shut up, James. Go, Seviper, Poison Tail!" Jessie cried, throwing a Pokeball. It burst open, releasing her snake-like Seviper, who hissed and lunged at Pikachu with a glowing tail.

"Go, Carnivine! Use Bullet Seed!" James commanded, summoning his sharp-toothed plant Pokemon…that promptly started gnawing on his head. "No, attack them, not me!"

"Pikachu, dodge and use Thunderbolt!" Ash commanded.

"Pika!" Pikachu easily dodged Seviper's tail attack, which smashed the floor where the electric mouse had just been standing. "KaaaaCHUUUU!" His body lighting up, he hit Seviper with a blast of electricity which shocked the serpent and knocked it back into the rest of Team Rocket, causing them to scream and convulse as it conducted Pikachu's Thunderbolt into them. This turned out to be a rather bad thing, as it caused Jessie to lose her grip on the valuable piece of amber and send it flying through the air. Everyone gasped as they saw this, and for a moment it seemed as if they had all forgotten how to breathe as they watched the rare, ancient, and fragile artifact tumble down towards the very hard museum floor. It took them half a second to realize they should do something, and immediately they all resumed motion and started running towards the falling piece of amber.

"I got it, I got it!" Max cried, running ahead of the others and leaping out to catch the amber before it hit the ground. "Aha! It's-" Team Rocket, who had managed to push ahead of everyone else, were unable to slow down in time and knocked into him, bowling him over and causing the amber to fly out of his hands and smash on the ground nearby. "…Broken. Crap."

"The amber!" the heroes cried.

"Our money!" Team Rocket wailed.

"Nice going, butterfingers!" May snapped.

"Hey, it's not my fault!" protested Max. It was then he noticed that a weird light was starting to emanate from the broken fragments of amber. "Uh-oh. That can't be good."

"It usually isn't," Ash agreed before there a brilliant explosion of light washed outwards to engulf the whole planet and erase every trace of human history from existence.

…

Dialga sneezed. "Aw, crap, that can't be good."

"Bless you. And what can't be good?" Palkia asked his counterpart.

Dialga grimaced. "There's been a retcon somewhere. My sinuses always get agitated when that happens."

Palkia groaned. "A retcon?! I fucking hate those things…don't tell me, was it that jerkass Superboy Prime again?"

"No, thankfully," said Dialga, shaking his head. "And he's Superman Prime now."

"Superman?! The hell?!" Palkia cried. "That doesn't make any sense! That rotten punk doesn't deserve to be a Superman, he's a total psychopath!"

"Tell me about it," Dialga griped. "That punch of his really hurt…fuckwad. I hope he dies soon."

"Yeah, me too." There was a pause. "So, what happened in this retcon?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing big. Well, actually, it was pretty big. Sixty-five million years of history have just been rewritten," said Dialga.

"Oh, one of those bringing back the dinosaurs deals?" Palkia asked.

Dialga nodded. "Pretty much, yeah."

"You gonna do something about it?"

Dialga shook his head. "Nah, don't feel like it. Besides, most retcons end up resolving themselves on their own and winding up exactly the way they were before, or close to it."

Palkia shrugged. "Okay."

And that was the end of that.

…

Ash woke up rather abruptly, half-remembered images from his dreams fading rapidly as he blinked repeatedly and lowered his nictitating membranes over his eyes to protect them from the harsh glare of the sun shining down through the big leaves of the cycad trees surrounding him. For a moment he was bewildered, and uncertain where he was. For some reason he had a fleeting recollection of being in a museum, and being a rather frail and pathetic hairless pink thing of all things, but he chalked it up to his dream and promptly forgot about it as reality reasserted itself around him.

It took but a glance around the clearing where they had set up camp for the previous night for him to satisfy himself that everything was as it should have been; every member of his pack was present and accounted for, aside from Brock. That didn't surprise him much though, the burly Ankilo usually woke up before the others and started preparing food for the rest of the pack. Ash felt a twinge of guilt, knowing that half the reason Brock was able to get up so easily was because he had nobody but his Dinomon Sudowoodo, Croagunk, and Happiny to sleep with and keep him warm during the night. It really wasn't fair; Brock was a swell guy, very dependable and caring, and the steady rock of reason that usually helped keep everyone else in the pack anchored down. He just…had a bit of a hormonal problem that caused him to go a little crazy whenever he smelled the pheromones of a mature female and forced his friends to have to restrain him to keep him from doing anything too foolish. It was an innocent biological mutation, but one that made it unlikely he would be able to attract a mate in the near future.

His friend May and her brother Max were sleeping only a few feet away, nestled in a warm mound of sorts formed by May's Dinomon, Max still too young to have any of his own. As the sunlight touched upon their faces, they stirred and slowly began to awaken, May rubbing her eyes with the backs of her scaly knuckles and Max yawning to show off his small, sharp teeth while Beautifly spread out her large and colorful wings, harmless dust falling off them as the enormous butterfly rose into the air. Blaziken spread her own fiery wings and got to her feet, igniting the flames on her wrists and ankles to dislodge the rather portly Munchlax, who had been gnawing on her foot in his sleep again. The miniature Snorlax (miniature as in being four feet tall!) quickly removed his mouth from her foot, knowing the blazing ostrich would drive a hole through his skull with her cruel, hooked beak if he were a second too slow. After glancing around to see if anyone else was available for consumption, and seeing that they were not, he grunted and shambled off into the bushes surrounding the clearing to see if he could find something or someone else to eat.

May pushed Max off her lap, much to his displeasure, managed to encourage her Warturtle, Skitty, and Eecko to let go of her, and rose to her feet. The long crest growing back from her skull looked especially red that morning, nicely complimenting her stripes and the red cloth bands and sashes wrapped around her chest, arms, and back. She licked her long tongue around her duck's-bill mouth to clean it, rubbed some more sleep from her eyes, then bent over to nudge her brother awake. "Max, it's time to get up."

"Dunwanna," the young Larvitar grumbled, curling up on the ground and trying to bury his head in the ground.

May frowned and stood up, her tail thumping the ground in annoyance. She looked, and smelled, frustrated. "Max, if you don't get up, I'll let Munchlax eat you." Munchlax poked his head out from the bushes in interest at this, something's tail sticking out of his mouth, but a glare from Blaziken caused him to retreat back into the greenery.

"I'm up, I'm up!" Max squawked, scrambling to get to his feet. He looked around, his poor eyesight causing him to squint to see anything. "Where're my glasses?" Skitty deposited them at his feet. He snatched them off the ground and looked at them in disgust, due to all the slobber and bite marks on his lenses. "Gee, thanks Skitty…"

"You're welcome," the little pink and yellow tiger purred through her rather large saber fangs, the thick end of her tail wagging in the air behind her. Warturtle, who also had nibbled on Max's glasses, flushed and hoped Max didn't notice his teeth marks on the eyewear.

May glanced around as Eecko, a brown plain-looking lizard, crawled up her leg and put itself in its usual spot on her shoulder. While the Dinomon didn't look like much, its ability to change colors at will much like a Kecleon, as well as being able to evolve into one of twenty-five different possible forms, each reflecting one of the elemental 'types' of Dinomon, made it a very rare and very popular creature. May was a very lucky Hadrus to have gotten and hatched one. "Oh, good morning Ash!" she said when she saw Ash was awake. There was a rather painful look of forced cheer on her face. "Did you sleep well?"

It was a rather pointed question, and he knew it. Ash felt another twinge of guilt as he looked down at the rather large group clustered up against him. "Yeah…yeah, I slept fine." It would be hard not to, with all the body heat his Dinomon and the Dinomon of his two lovers generated when they were all pressed together. And of course there was what they had done before going to sleep, but that sort of went without saying, and May knew it just as much as Brock did, and probably felt even worse about it than Brock, because at least Brock had never been attracted to Ash. (Which would actually be kind of scary, come to think of it.)

May had been in love with Ash for quite a while. After Brock had explained to him what her smell meant, it became rather clear to him, and rather awkward, since he only thought of her as a friend, and nothing more. (It also didn't make much sense to him, since he had thought she was into that green Spinoza Drew.) He liked May and Max, honestly he did, he had had some great times traveling with them through the Hoenn and Kanto regions. However, he did not love May; he had not become nearly as close to her as he had with, well, the loves of his life. He found himself smiling as he looked down at them, both females pressed up tightly against his scaled flesh and looking like the most beautiful things in the entire world as they slept.

On one side of him was Dawn, a still-maturing but rather lovely blue-skinned Dilophont with a pair of disk-shaped head crests and a very beautiful neck frill which always stunned him with its vivid display of colors every time she unfolded it to its fullest, which was not often, as it was something intimate and only to be shared in private or used in Dinomon contests. When combined with the ornamental jewelry, furs, feathers, and skins she always put on for those contests, she made quite a looker, and it was a constant source of amazement to Ash that she hadn't earned more ribbons yet. Then again, looks were only half of what won a contest, she and her Dinomon were still learning how to put on a good show. It was a pity that May, for somewhat obvious reasons, resented her, otherwise the somewhat more experienced coordinator might have been able to give Dawn a helping hand in that category.

To be fair, though, he hadn't intended to fall in love with Dawn. It just sort of…happened. Dawn had joined him on his first day in the Sinnoh region, figuring it would be safer to travel along with a more experienced tamer than to go around the countryside attending Dinomon contests on her own. He had been feeling especially lonely because she, the one whom he truly loved more than anything and missed with all his heart (but who was now lying beside him and making him feel whole and happy and at home), had not been with him and was so very far away, stuck at home keeping her beautiful but completely brainless sisters from running the place into the ground. Dawn had been upset that she had done so poorly at her latest contest. They had tried to comfort each other, and…one thing led to another, and…well, you know how these things usually end up.

Ash had been afraid at first that she would kill him for having another lover while they were apart, but…she had taken it better than he had expected.

Okay, that was a lie. She had gone totally primordial, screaming and roaring at him over the phone and calling him some very nasty and cruel things before racing over to Sinnoh in person to murder him, and…then she met Dawn, smelled her, got to know her a bit, and…cooled off, evidently deciding the young coordinator was not 'some floozy' who had managed to seduce Ash from her. That's not to say Ash didn't get it from her anyway, he still had scars from that tongue (and claw)-lashing. But after that his two mates quickly became good friends, the older gym leader taking on a role of mentorship to the younger Dilophont, telling her everything she had learned from her idiot sisters about style and presentation and beauty, which Ash was sure would help Dawn win her next contest. The two girls made a very good team…

Especially at night, when they double-teamed him. It had helped Ash to really appreciate why Brock was so obsessed with women.

He smiled down at the girl on his other side, his first and truest love; Misty, former leader of the Cerulean gym. She was, in his eyes, an absolutely gorgeous Plessio—a relatively new species of saurian (new as in they evolved in the last few thousand years) that had used to dwell primarily in the ocean but had adapted to live on land as well. She had very sleek, smooth, rubbery tight skin unlike the scaly hides of just about everyone else Ash knew, mostly ocean blue in hue with a yellow underside and spots here and there. Her tail was rather short and stubby compared to Ash's own, or that of most other saurians, but it was still long enough to help her walk upright without falling over. Her limbs were somewhat flexible elongated and flattened flippers ending in surprisingly delicate and manipulative claws that were both good at giving massages and ripping off strips of his hide. Her long, S-curved neck ended in a medium-length head with a narrow snout, sharp curved teeth, and beautiful blue eyes and orange frills.

They had first met when Ash and his first Dinomon, Pikachu, had fallen into a river while being chased by a flock of very hungry and nasty avians, and Misty, who had been swimming about trying to catch some fish, had almost eaten him, something that both amused and embarrassed both of them to this day. He had wound up stealing her ornicycle to rush his injured companion to the nearest city, only for it to get all but completely destroyed when Pikachu used up the last of his power to fry the attacking avians. Ash had enjoyed consuming the electrocuted winged vermin, and would have eaten more of them if Pikachu hadn't been in such a dire condition. Misty had caught up to him at the Dinomon Center and let him have it with claws and invective, before announcing she was going to follow him until he paid her back for her wrecked cycle.

He never actually did repay her (the Nurse Joyheart at the Center had fixed it up in the intervening years), but Ash was glad Misty had stuck with him as long as she did. While they were both too stubborn to admit or acknowledge the feelings they had for each other, despite the rather obvious pheromones of mutual attraction they had both emitted, they had eventually fallen in love, and consummated that love (repeatedly!) just before he entered the Johto League Silver Conference. They had been forced to part soon after, she to go back to her gym and he to travel to the Hoenn region to continue pursuing his dreams, but they had sworn to stay true to each other and become lifemates…which was probably why she had been so angry at first when she found out about him and Dawn. He was very glad that hadn't ended as badly as he was afraid it would.

"Hey," he said, shaking the girls softly. "It's time to get up."

"Mmm. Do we have to?" Dawn asked, frowning and snuggling closer to Ash, her eyes still squeezed shut.

"Yeah, we probably should," Misty said with a yawn that gave Ash the most delectable odor of fish breath. He tried not to grimace or flinch, since he knew she'd make him regret it. "C'mon, let's get up and make Brock prepare us something to eat."

That seemed to wake Dawn up. "Okay."

The three saurians, with some difficulty, managed to extricate themselves from their Dinomon and from each other and get up. The void they left seemed to be an immediate signal for the Dinomon to get up as well, and shortly everyone was on their feet, and hungry. Ash's Staraptor and Gliscor immediately took to the skies, the winged reptiles looking for something smaller and less swift in the air to eat. The lean and rodentlike Buizel tried to retrieve his tails from Turtwig, who had been gnawing on them in his sleep, as usual. He was at a bit of a disadvantage, seeing as how the grassy turtle was at least twice as big as he was. Dawn's Piplup licked the length and interior of his long and pointed beak, checking to see if there was any food leftover from last night's dinner stuck in his teeth. Pachirisu ran around in circles energetically, as she usually did no matter what time of day it was, catching Skitty's eye and causing the cat of an equally short attention span to chase after her eagerly. Ambipom gently shook off Chimchar, who had been clinging to her in his sleep again. Ash felt a moment of sympathy for the fiery monkey, a recent addition to his team, adopted after being abandoned by his abusive tamer Paul. He quickly fought down a flare of anger at the loathsome purple Raptorex, knowing the others would be confused if he smelled like rage this early in the morning. Ash was glad that Chimchar had become so close to the other monkey, who had also been part of Ash's team for a while before deciding to join Dawn's; sleeping with Ambipom seemed to chase away the nightmares that had gotten him waking up screaming in the middle of the night for a while during the first few weeks after Paul had 'released' him.

Ash was not so glad that Ambipom had stolen his hat again. It seemed to be a habit she refused to break, despite being part of Dawn's team now. Ash snatched his headpiece back from the two-tailed monkey, causing both apes to chitter and giggle at him. Ash growled a little as he put his hat back on, sure that everyone else was trying not to laugh, he could smell it on them.

Gyarados was eyeing Piplup and licking his lips, clearly wondering if the penguin tasted any good. Corsola pointed her many rather sharp horns at him and he backed off. The hyperintelligent Psyduck quacked in amusement. Politoad clapped his webbed hands together to entertain Azurill, Ash and Misty's third 'child', the first two being Togetic and Phanadon. None of the Dinomon were actually Ash and Misty's children, naturally, but Togepi and Phanpy had imprinted on Misty and Ash as being their respective parents upon hatching, and continued to think so even after they evolved. Azurill saw Ash and Misty as more like being her aunt and uncle, since she knew her mother (the Marill of Tracey Sketchit, an old friend of Ash's as well as Professor Oak's assistant and a fine artistic Archaeryx), but Ash knew Misty saw the little water mouse as being a second daughter to her, and Togetic treated her like a little sister. Ash was sure Phanadon would have loved Azurill, but seeing as how he was currently staying at Professor Oak's ranch with the rest of Ash's other Dinomon, he hadn't really gotten a chance to meet her.

Ash was amused to note that his first Dinomon and best friend, the wiry electric rat Pikachu, was having trouble dislodging his own lover, who didn't seem to want to let go of him for any reason now that they had been properly mated. Dawn's Buneary had fallen in love with Pikachu at first sight, which wasn't that surprising; Pikachu seemed to attract more females than even Ash did without trying! Many Dinomon tended to have looser sexual relations than saurians (whose sexual relations were fairly liberal to begin with), and he had done his duty to further his species' evolutionary advantage by spreading his seed in nearly every region he and Ash had traveled to, something else Brock was rather envious of. That was not to say that Pikachu had an enormous libido, merely that he felt if a female threw herself at him and they were both in the mood, there was no reason they both couldn't have a little fun. Pikachu's rather unique sex appeal and incredible power were somewhat odd for his species, even as popular as they were in general, and Ash sometimes wondered if that might actually be part of the reason the idiots in Team Rocket had been trying to get their claws on him for years now. He really didn't want to think about what might happen if they managed to capture Pikachu and Ash was unable to get him back. (On the other hand, he also suspected that same appeal might be part of the reason why none other than the legendary Lifegiver Mew had kidnapped Pikachu a few months back and taken him to her lair in the Tree of Beginning, leading to a rather interesting adventure involving an ancient Lucario warrior whom Ash was truly sad to have said farewell to. Pikachu vehemently denied that anything had happened between them, but Ash still had his suspicions.) In any event, most of Pikachu's other liaisons had been one-time affairs, but he seemed to really like Dawn's Buneary as much as she liked him, so there was a chance that they might become lifemates. They might have had to anyway; Ash doubted the fiercely possessive Buneary was going to let any other female near Pikachu while they were together.

Ash stretched out his limbs to work the kinks out of his muscles, somewhat stiff and sore after a long night of being buried beneath the bodies of others (and repeated lovemaking, of course). He flexed the five clawed digits on each hand, shook his tail to get the blood flowing back into it, wiggled the talons and wicked curved scythe blades on his feet which designated him as a healthy male Raptorex, and rolled his head about to get his neck vertebrae back in place. He was up, a new day had come, his friends and packmates were all around him…

And they were all hungry. Fortunately, that little problem was alleviated when Brock and his Dinomon arrived, preceded by the rather loud noise they made breaking through the foliage as well as their odor…accompanied by the delectable smell of fresh meat, along with a goodly amount of fish, nuts, fruits, leaves, and mushrooms of many different varieties. "I'm back!" Brock announced needlessly as he entered the campsite, carrying a rather large bundled leaf in his thick forearms filled with the aforementioned edible plant life, his thick clubbed tail swinging about and breaking apart more foliage to clear a path for his teammates behind him. Ash (and most of the others) were more interested in the very large dead Slakong that Brock's recently hatched Dinomon, Happiny, was carrying almost single-handedly with incredible ease, much to the discomfort of Sudowoodo, who was unable even to lift one leg of the fallen beast. Croagunk didn't seem to care, but then again, most of the workings of the poisonous frog's mind were a mystery to everyone. Not even Politoad, a fellow amphibian, had been able to get much out of Croagunk, or get the frog to explain why it felt compelled to swallow Brock every time he made an advance on a woman. Dawn had suggested at one point that maybe Croagunk was jealous and secretly lusted for Brock, but after trying to discover the frog's gender (a rather fruitless and embarrassing misadventure that they had all agreed never to speak of again), they gave up and decided that some mysteries could never be solved. "Who wants breakfast?"

Everyone did. The majority of the pack was carnivorous, and so appreciated Brock, an herbivore, going out now and then to hunt down and kill a nonsentient animal for them to eat. "You didn't have to go out on your own to do this," Ash told Brock as he helped the Ankilo prepare the Slaking for consumption by peeling off its skin with his claws. "We would've helped you go get food if you had asked us to."

Misty nodded as she fed Gyarados whole fish by the armful; the sea serpent preferring his meat raw rather than prepared in any particular way. "Yeah, everyone in a pack has a role to fulfill, after all. It's not right for one person to go and do all the work by himself."

Brock shrugged, not looking at either of them as he mashed up some of the fruits and berries that he and the other herbivores were going to eat for breakfast. "Yeah, I know, but I woke up before everyone else, saw you guys all sleeping, saw no reason to disturb you…figured I might as well."

Ash, Misty, and Dawn grimaced uneasily while May's eyes hardened noticeably. The Dinomon gave each other and their tamers uncertain looks. Max seemed rather oblivious and was perfectly happy to munch on one of the fish Brock had caught. Ash sighed and went back to his task, knowing that this tension growing between them, building higher ever since Misty had returned and Ash had started sleeping with both her and Dawn, and getting worse when May showed up, was going to tear the pack apart if something wasn't done about it.

Unfortunately, Ash wasn't sure what that something was. He doubted a direct confrontation with May or Brock would solve anything but bruising everyone's feelings. Pikachu, who found the whole thing rather ridiculous, had suggested that maybe Brock or May should just get laid (though not with each other, thankfully) and that would solve everything. He was probably right, but there was the rather significant problem of who they were to sleep with, Brock's hormonal problem made it nearly impossible for him to get a date, even when female saurians were in heat, and Drew, who he was fairly certain May liked, was nowhere near Sinnoh. At least, Ash didn't think he was. If only he knew the guy's phone number…

He sighed. It was tough being alpha of the pack.

Everyone felt a bit better after they had something in their stomachs. After wrapping up the leftovers and storing them in Brock's vacuum unit for later, they headed off en masse, continuing towards Canalava City, where Ash intended to obtain his sixth Sinnoh League badge. With all eight, he would be able to enter the Sinnoh League championships and compete against other tamers and their Dinomon for the title of Champion of Sinnoh…after he beat the current champion, the lovely and brilliant Cynthia, that is. Ash knew he and his team would have to train harder than ever if they were ever going to beat her, especially considering how easily she defeated Ash's current archrival Paul. (Not that he minded watching Paul get creamed…quite the contrary, actually, heheh.) Brock predicted that they would be there by midday, and assuming they didn't get lost or held up (which happened far too frequently for everyone's liking), the Ankilo was probably right. Especially since Misty checked the map and made the same prediction.

They got into their usual formations as they traveled towards the city. The oldest saurians and Dinomon formed a circle around the younger ones, like Max, Happiny, and Azurill, for their protection. The flyers took to the skies to circle about and look for any potential threat from above, while the quickest and most agile, such as Ambipom, Chimchar, and Pachirisu scouted ahead to make sure the path was clear and there were no serious obstacles or dangers in their way. The slower and more powerful Dinomon, such as Gyarados and Blaziken, took up the rear to guard the pack from any attacks from behind. Pikachu could easily have gone ahead or taken up the rear, since he technically belonged in either category, but instead sat on Ash's shoulder, like he usually did. None of them really expected a threat, but the countryside could be a dangerous place, as everyone knew. There was no reason not to play it safe.

Of course, playing it safe didn't really do much to protect you from having the ground abruptly cave in under your feet and dump you into a very deep pit. There wasn't really any way to prepare for it, not that they hadn't tried all sorts of ways over the years. It was always very painful to fall anywhere with Brock, since if you landed on top of him you'd get stuck on his spikes, and if he landed on top of you…well, let's just say it hurts rather a lot and move on.

And it hurt an awful lot more when you had just about everyone else in the pack piled up on top of you. "Ow…" Ash groaned.

"Dammit, why do we always fall into these things?!" Brock complained angrily.

"Brock, you shouldn't curse when children are present!" Misty snapped, just as Happiny and Azurill started squealing 'Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!' "Oh great, now look what you've done!"

"Sorry…" Brock grumbled.

"Why does this sort of thing always happen to us?! I bet most other packs don't fall into pit traps all the time!" May moaned.

"Most packs don't have annoying stalkers," Dawn pointed out.

As if on cue, three heads poked over the rim of the pit to look down at the group, filling the hole with their noxious spoor. "Mwahahahaha!" they laughed in a pathetic attempt at sounding evil, causing everyone to groan.

"Listen! Is that a voice I hear?" one of them called.

"It's speaking to me loud and clear…" said another.

"An evil as old as the saurian legacy…"

"Sent here to fulfill our destiny!"

"Meowf, dat's me!" chirped the third interloper.

"From the blackest tar pit we come!"

"To bring ruin to all the world, and then some!"

"Jessie!" shrieked a rather hideous red-feathered Compsy.

"And James!" added a rather effeminate blue-feathered Compsy.

"And Meowf too!" Meowth lisped through his comically oversized saber fangs.

"Team Rocket, bringing extinction at the speed of light!" said Jessie.

"When we strike like the meteor, we'll bring the final night!" said James.

"Meowf, dat'f right!" Meowth lisped.

"Hi," said the blue blob Wobbuffet.

Ash frowned. "Is it just me, or did we go through this before?"

"Yes," said a deadpan Turtwig. "We did this yesterday…"

"And the day before that," said Piplup.

"And the day before that," said Eecko.

"And the day before that," Brock lamented.

"And the day before that," said Corsola.

"And the day before that," said Warturtle.

"And the day before that," said Pikachu with a sigh.

"And the day before that!" Azurill squeaked happily.

"No, I mean…today!" said Ash.

"Huh? We haven't run into them before now today," said a confused Misty.

"No, I mean…um…never mind," said Ash, feeling rather bewildered.

"Now that we've captured you all, we'll steal Pikachu and give him to the Boss!" Jessie said gleefully.

"Yes, and there's nothing you can do to stop us!" James agreed. "Since Carnivine set up an ambush further up the path to devour your forward scouts, and Dustox is causing a distraction for your flyers up above! There's nobody left to save you!"

"Um, you do realize we're right here, don't you?" asked Gyarados.

The Rockets paused in their self-congratulation to notice that Gyarados, Blaziken, Croagunk, Sudowoodo, Munchlax, and Psyduck were standing on the other side of the pit right across from them. Since they had been guarding the pack's rear, they had been a few feet behind the rest of the group and so had not fallen into the pit. The Rockets paled noticeably. "Oh dung," said Meowth.

"I knew we were forgetting something," James groaned.

Blaziken took a step forward, her talons digging hard into the ground and causing bits of foliage and detritus nearby to light on fire. "I'm going to drill a hole through their skulls," she said calmly, her hooked beak gleaming.

"Can I eat them afterwards?" Munchlax asked hopefully, licking his lips. "I've never had a Compsy before."

"Neither have I. This'll be a new experience for me," Gyarados agreed. "I've been wanting to eat them for a long time!"

"Same," Croagunk…croaked.

"This'll be fun," Psyduck cackled evilly, his eyes glowing. "I'm gonna project a psychic bubble into their heads and cause their brains to explode from the inside out…it'll be all gory and stuff."

The Rockets yelped and backed away. "Seviper, attack them!" Jessie screamed.

"Diiiiiiiieeeee!" Jessie's enormous serpent Seviper hissed as he lunged out of the trees and slithered at the Dinomon…only to fall right into the pit, which he hadn't noticed in front of him until it was too late. He landed right on top of the pack, who did not take his intrusion and the pressure he added to everyone beneath him too kindly. They savagely laid into him with tooth and claw, and in such a small confined space there really wasn't any way for him to escape. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" he screamed in bloodcurdling agony as Skitty and Buizel tried to claw out his eyes.

The Rockets went even whiter. James defecated himself, but he did that a lot anyway. "Um…oh dear," he whimpered.

"SEVIPER!" Jessie shrieked. The serpent had been one of the few creatures who was actually able to tolerate her and would agree to mate with her without wearing a blindfold or insisting she put on a mask.

"Well, crap," Meowth groaned. "At least we still have Plan B!" He pulled out a remote and pressed a button, causing a giant robot that looked like a tiny-armed Raptorex to leap out of the foliage and land before them, leaning down to roar in the faces of the strong Dinomon. Laughing malevolently, the Rockets leaped into the mechasaur's cockpit.

"Behold the Robo-Rex Mk. CDMXVIII!" Jessie boasted proudly. "Far superior to all the previous Robo-Rexes you've destroyed!"

"Yes, this one's fireproof, shockproof, iceproof, waterproof, blastproof, weatherproof, beamproof, psyproof, darkproof, lightproof, plantproof, rockproof, dragonproof, and…um…a lot of other things-proof, too!" James said smugly.

"It coft uf quite a bundle, but it'll be worff it ta beat da crap out off you twerpf!" Meowth lisped. "And den we'll haff Pikachu, and he'll be mine…all mine to wuv and play wiff and do all fortf off naughty…um…" Meowth noticed his teammates were giving him horrified looks. "Fforget I faid dat."

Pikachu's eyes bulged out of their sockets. "…Okay, that's just twisted and wrong. I'm scared shitless here."

"I'LL KILL HIM!" Buneary howled, eyes flashing red as she hugged Pikachu protectively to her chest. "YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM, YOU FREAK!"

"There's nothing you can do to stop us from doing just that!" James said. "Except for the disgusting stuff, we'll try our best to keep Meowth from molesting Pikachu."

"Aww…" Meowth whined in disappointment, his ears and whiskers sagging.

"Uh, hello, did you idiots forget about us again?" Gyarados growled.

"No, it's just that you can't possibly defeat our robot by yourselves, it's far too powerful!" Jessie taunted. "Since everyone else who could help you is down in a pit or otherwise occupied, you're completely doomed! Mwahahahahaha!"

It was at that point that suddenly the trapped Dinomon and saurians flew out of the pit, one at a time, as if something was throwing them up one by one. They tumbled through the air and either landed on their feet if they were graceful enough, or fell flat on their faces if they were not, which was most of them. "Whoa! That was interesting," Ash commented.

The Rockets' jaws dropped. "But…but…HOW?!"

"Weee!" Happiny squealed, hopping out of the pit easily. "That was fun! I wanna do that again!"

"Not now, sweetie," Brock told her.

"Brock, your Happiny is ridiculously strong," May commented, a stunned look on her face.

"Thank you," Brock said with a smile.

"I didn't think it was possible for a baby Dinomon to be that strong…what are you feeding her? Where does she keep all that muscle?!" Max cried.

Brock shrugged. "I guess she just eats all her vitamins. That and I think the Chansey that laid her was on steroids or something."

Misty nodded. "That'd explain it."

"W-well, you still can't defeat our robot!" Jessie stammered.

"Yes, after all, we've made it nearly everything-proof!" James added desperately, sounding like he dearly hoped that was indeed the case.

"'Nearly' isn't good enough," said Misty with a smirk. "Everyone…" All the Dinomon began charging up their attacks.

"Wait!" Ash interrupted. "I have a better idea." He turned to Brock. "Brock, do you think that thing is babyproof?"

Brock blinked. "Baby…" A sly look appeared on his face. "No…no, I don't suppose it is. Happiny, would you like to play with that oversized toy?"

"Would I!" Happiny toddled over to the giant robot.

"Hey, I wanna play too!" Azurill protested.

"Sorry dear, but you don't have abnormal super strength," Misty said apologetically. "We'll get you something in the next town."

"Okay," the water mouse squeaked, slightly mollified.

"Wait, what're you-" Meowth started, just before Happiny grabbed the Robo-Rex Mk. CDMXVIII by a toe, lifted it into the air, and started swinging it back and forth, bashing it repeatedly into the ground. "WAAAAAHHHH!"

"Weee! This is fun!" Happiny squealed happily as she proceeded to thoroughly wreck the Rockets' not-so-invincible robot.

"Wow, that does look like fun," Pikachu admitted. "Wish I could do that."

"What, isn't filling them with millions of volts of electricity good enough?" Turtwig asked him.

Pikachu snorted. "Seeing as how it never manages to kill them, no."

"I thought we were going to get to kill something…but the kid's doing all the work!" Gyarados complained.

"Well, at least it's fun to watch," Blaziken pointed out.

"Yes, seeing those buffoons suffer horrible pain is always entertaining," Psyduck agreed.

"That's…amazing," May said, astounded by Happiny's strength.

"As I said before, this shouldn't be possible…" muttered Max, equally astounded.

"Don't bother thinking about the physics of it, just accept it," Dawn said. "It's not worth agonizing over."

Ash had a sudden thought. "Brock, do you suppose I could-"

"No Ash, you may not borrow Happiny for your upcoming gym battle," Brock said firmly.

"Darn," Ash grumbled.

"Round and round we go!" Happiny sang as she whirled the Robo-Rex Mk. CDMXVIII over her head by the tail, causing Team Rocket's screams to frequently change in pitch. It made a rather interesting effect, though the sounds of vomiting were not that pleasant. "Where we stop, I don't know!" She lost her balance suddenly and tripped, causing the robot's tail to slip out of her hands. "Whoops!"

"WAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Team Rocket screamed as their robot was flung very, very far away. "Looks like we're blasting off agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!"

"Why must my life be paaaaaaaiiiiiiiin?" Wobbuffet hollered as they vanished in a twinkle over the horizon.

"Welp, there they go," said Ash.

"And good riddance. Too bad I couldn't send off with a thunderclap…especially that creepy Meowth." Pikachu shuddered.

"Don't worry, you'll get to blast them off next time," Buneary told him. "After I freeze Meowth's genitals off, of course."

"I wonder what those would taste like," Munchlax commented, causing everyone to give him a disgusted look. "What?"

"Awww…my toy's gone!" Happiny said unhappily. "Oh well, at least I still have my other one."

They stared at her. "Other one?" Brock asked after a moment.

"Yes!" Happiny jumped back in the pit, much to Brock's dismay, only to leap back out a minute later carrying the incredibly beaten, bruised, broken, and bleeding Seviper. "This one! Can I keep it?"

Brock stared at Seviper. "Uh…Ash?"

Ash shook his head. "Hey, I may be Alpha, but you're her father/tamer. It's your call."

"Gee, thanks," Brock grumbled.

"If you don't let her have it, can I?" Munchlax asked. They stared at him. "What? He would make a good lunch."

"Hmm, he has a point there," Gyarados agreed, eyeing Seviper hungrily. The serpent's only eye that wasn't swollen shut widened in horror. "I don't think I've had snake in a looooong time."

"I wanna try! I wanna try!" Max cried.

Misty rolled her eyes. "Men. Always thinking with their stomachs."

"Definitely," Dawn agreed.

"Hey!" Ash, Brock, Max, and…every male Dinomon protested.

"What? It's true," Misty pointed out.

"Yeah, it is," May agreed. "Either your stomachs or your groins." Ash, Brock, and Pikachu flushed, and decided there was little point in arguing further.

…

In the end, Brock decided to let Happiny keep her Seviper 'toy', though he told her she'd have to take good care of it, because if it died, he was going to have to make it into food for everyone else. The rest of the Dinomon soon rejoined the pack, having dispatched the obstacles Team Rocket had put in their paths (Chimchar having lit James's giant Carnivine on fire from the inside, while Staraptor, Gliscor, Togetic, and Beautifly had simply torn Dustox apart in midair and eaten him piece by piece.), and after filling in the pit so that no other hapless traveler would fall prey to it, they continued on the road to Canalava City. Despite the waste of time that had been Team Rocket's usual daily interruption, they made it to town a little after noon, also known by some as 'no-shadow time,' much as Brock had predicted.

Canalava City was a port town bisected by canals, much like Altomare, only not as cool or extensive. Large ships, hovercraft, and ferry Dinomon were moored at the piers. The city had at one time been a hub of interregional cargo transportation, but was now used more as a fishing spot and a place to go on cruises. Some distance off the coast was Iron Island, which used to be a prosperous ore mine that had been the source of the city's wealth and livelihood, but it had dried up a while ago and was now just a tourist spot and training ground. Another island, Fullmoon Island, was also located several miles off the coast of Canalava, and was said to be the home of the legendary Dinomon of dreams and the moon, Cresselia. The city got its name from the fact that it was set at the base of a semi-extinct volcano that had been rigged up long ago to release lava in a pair of slow-moving streams which flowed down the mountainside and helped power the city's geothermal plants as well as providing heat for Canalava's renowned artificial hot springs. They all paused for a minute on the bridge leading into the city to look down at the lava flow running underneath them. They didn't stay too long though; the heat was rather uncomfortable for Misty and her Water-types. (That and Happiny, Azurill, and Max almost fell in because they were leaning too far over the railing.)

They had argued on the way there about the order of events once they arrived, with May and Misty both wanting to see the museum, Dawn and Max expressing interest in the city's famous library, and Brock just wanting to walk around town and see the sights (and hopefully find a woman, of course.). Ash, naturally, wanted to head right for the Canalava Gym, and while everyone else agreed that they would go there (after all, his quest to get badges was basically the main reason the pack had been formed in the first place), he was the only one who wanted to go there right away rather than taking the time to see the sights first. (Although for some reason, he almost felt like going to the museum.)

Eventually, after a lot of debate, yelling, death threats, pummeling, clawing, biting, and repeated shocks from Pikachu, it was suggested that they would check in at the local Dinomon Center first to see how late all the things they wanted to do would stay open, as well as seeing what other attractions there were in town. This was amenable to everyone, especially Brock.

The style of architecture in the city was typical of most towns in the Sinnoh region: functional multilayered buildings made from stone, metal, or blocks, with holes in the roof to let sunlight and rainwater inside. Only a few windows had glass in them, not because glass was rare or anything, but because it wasn't really practical to use something so fragile in a town full of creatures that were sometimes capable of destroying furniture or leveling buildings by accident if they weren't careful. Semitransparent plastic seals and metal or wooden shutters were used instead, so no stupid flying Dinomon (or the occasional winged saurian) would fly into a closed window, thinking it was open. The walls were either painted or chemically treated to display colors pleasing to the eye, and they changed as the sun rose and sank.

Every building had its name, address and purpose carved in saurian lettering above the main entrance, with the name of the family dwelling there in the case of smaller residential structures. Larger apartment buildings had the names of the inhabitants written over the windows of individual units, since there wasn't really any point in putting all those names over the main entrance. The stone the lettering was carved into was an artificial compound that could be rendered back to its original blank state with the proper application of electrical impulses, allowing new occupants to add their name when the original inhabitants moved out. The more important or historical buildings in the city had detailed and vivid frescoes and murals covering their outer surfaces detailing the legacy and function that structure had played throughout the town's existence. Since most saurians rarely tore down buildings unless they were grossly unsafe, preferring to just make renovations or additions as needed over time, many of the frescoes detailed events that happened thousands of years ago, back to the city's founding. Some of the larger and older metropolises Ash and his friends had been to had buildings that had been around for millions of years, great towering edifices with beautiful carvings of saurian or Dinomon features climbing way up into the heavens, but Canalave was still a relatively 'young' city, and so the oldest building was the library, which had only been around for about ten hundred thousand years, or so the guidebooks and frescoes said. (It had actually been second oldest until the city's Temple of All Gods was burned down by religious extremists some millennia ago and a new one had to be built in its place.) The library, while not the oldest building in the land, was still reputed to have one of the best collections in the region. Cynthia herself had recommended it, saying it was one of the best sources on history and mythology in all of Sinnoh.

The majority of the city's saurians were either amphibious or members of former ocean-dwelling species that had adapted to life on land more recently, just like Misty. As a result, there was more sleek skin, fins, and spines than scales on the bodies of the townspeople Ash and his pack walked by on their way to the Dinomon Center. While his packmates talked about random things, marveled at the architecture and Canalava's history, looked perhaps a little too much at the women, or complained about hunger, Ash once more applied some thought to the problem of the undercurrents of discord threatening to tear his pack apart. Ash was certain that if he couldn't figure out something to do about it soon, the little family he had managed to build would be destroyed.

He doubted that Misty or Dawn would leave him, and he was pretty sure May and Max could take care of themselves if they decided to part ways (then again, they had already done that, and yet here they were again), but Ash wasn't sure what would happen if Brock were to leave. Save for that brief stretch when he and Misty went to the Orange Islands, Brock had always been part of the pack, a subtle presence as steady and ever-present as a mountain. While he might not always have been quite as active as Ash or the others, the support, advice, and maturity he exuded (most of the time) from the background had sometimes been the glue keeping the differing personalities and attitudes of his packmates from destroying each other. Arceus only knew how much worse Ash and Misty's arguments and fights back in the early days, caused by their mutual frustration, stubbornness, and inability to admit their feelings for each other might have gotten if Brock hadn't intervened time after time. While the sexual tension between the two of them had diminished after they…well, had sex with each other, they still had somewhat violent arguments due to their clashing dominating personalities, and Ash was uncertain how those would be mediated if Brock were to leave. (Well, Pikachu could shock them, but he didn't think that would be particularly therapeutic.)

Plus, Brock was the only member of the pack who knew how to cook. Ash had gotten rather used to eating his meat after it had been properly treated and prepared by the Ankilo's culinary skills; he wasn't sure how he'd adapt to eating things raw out in the wild again.

The easy solution Pikachu had proposed to Brock's problem; how his inability to get laid was making him quietly jealous and frustrated of Ash's, ah, unbridled double success in finding someone to love; was much more complex than it would appear. Because, honestly, it wasn't just that Brock wanted sex, though that was part of it due to his hormonal condition and being a male. The thing was that he deeply respected and loved women, and dearly wanted to be loved back. It was for that reason they couldn't just leave Brock at a brothel with some money for a few hours; while the women there certainly wouldn't find his little lust thing to be a problem, considering the clients they usually got, it wouldn't fulfill Brock's desire to be loved. And the problem was, it was kind of hard for Brock to woo someone's heart if his hormones kept driving him to try and mate with her. You would've thought in this day and age you could get surgery or medication for a problem like that, but unfortunately the Dinomon League's health care plan back in Kanto didn't cover what Brock had, and Brock's family didn't have enough money to afford the procedure, (and neither did Ash, for that matter) so short of neutering Brock there wasn't much of a way to fix the problem. And NOBODY wanted that, though Misty threatened it occasionally.

May's problem was simpler but no less onerous. She was in love with Ash, and was frustrated that he had never reciprocated his feelings, and was in fact sort of flaunting the fact that he was with TWO other women in her face. At least, that's how she felt about it. Ash couldn't help the fact that he was intimately bonded with two other women, neither of whom were May, things had just worked out like that. In another time and place things might have been different, but he had met Misty first, and she had captured his heart in a way no other female but Dawn had. It wasn't that May was deficient or anything, she just didn't have the same traits that had attracted Ash to Misty or Dawn. And while Ash knew that May's possible future departure, should it happen on bad terms (which at the moment was looking pretty likely), might not hurt the pack overall the same way Brock leaving might, it would still leave a bit of a wound and lots of hurt feelings, and make everyone feel guilty. The only two solutions Ash could think of would be to mate with May (though he was pretty sure that would only make things WORSE), or to somehow get her together with that Drew guy. If only he knew Drew's number! Or had any actual matchmaking skills.

He sighed wearily, feeling the heavy weight of duty lying on his shoulders. It was not easy being Alpha of a pack of his own. The care and emotional wellbeing of everyone in the group was his responsibility. He knew he was fortunate to have two loving mates to help him bear the burden, but it didn't make the problems he had to face any easier to solve.

His melancholy and deep thoughts were interrupted by a nudge from the Pikachu on his shoulder, making him realize they had reached the Dinomon Center. A fairly recent building, maybe only a few hundred years old, the structure was dome-shaped with a red flat-topped roof and high walls fencing in a large park and garden where resident and patient Dinomon could frolic in a simulation of their natural habitats and tamers could take a moment to relax in a calm and secluded faux forest in the middle of a bustling modern city.

They entered the building, the transparent doors sliding open automatically as they approached with a welcoming chime and the scent of fresh flowers. The main lobby of the Center was bright and tastefully decorated, like all Dinomon Centers were, with furniture of all shapes and sizes to suit the many different varieties of saurian tamers. Most of these seats, benches and couches were currently occupied by a couple of dozen tamers, some of them in packs and others by themselves, energetically talking to each other, playing with their Dinomon, or fidgeting anxiously as they waited to hear from the nurse whether their Dinomon were okay or not. There were an awful lot of anxious-smelling tamers in the room, and it wasn't hard for Ash to figure out that they had just gotten back from a fight with the local gym leader. He hoped that he wouldn't be joining their numbers in the near future.

"Hello, and welcome to the Canalava City Dinomon Center! How may I help you?" asked Nurse Joyheart, who was standing behind the lobby's main desk. Like all Nurse Joyhearts, the female saurian in charge of the Dinomon Center was a very pretty pink-skinned reptile with big blue eyes and head frills and spines done in artistic curls, wearing the nurse's hat and white robes of her profession. Every Dinomon Center in the world was manned by a Nurse Joyheart, and every Nurse Joyheart looked almost exactly alike. Only someone with a skilled eye, such as Brock, could tell the difference between nurses from place to place. There was much debate as to why every Nurse Joyheart, much like all the Commodore Jennies that could be found in every police force, looked so similar, even for members of a distinct species. All sorts of wild theories came up, from cloning to robotics to the forefront of an alien invasion, but Ash didn't buy into any of those, especially since he had actually seen young members of the Joyheart family, born through regular reproductive means rather than genetic engineering. If there was an answer to the mystery of the identical women, it was known only to the nurses in the Joyheart clan. It was the same for the Jennies.

Brock didn't really care, he thought all Jennies and Joyhearts were beautiful, and that's all that mattered as he rushed to the desk and violated the startled nurse's personal space. "My name is Brock, and I desperately need your help! My heart is suffering from a terrible condition!"

Joyheart looked alarmed, while everyone else groaned. "Oh my! Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Yes," Brock said forlornly. "You can heal my heart by going out withaaaauuuuuugh!" he screamed as Croagunk's tongue wrapped around his waist and yanked him into the poison frog's mouth.

Nurse Joyheart stared as an Ankilo-shaped bulge struggled and writhed desperately against Croagunk's outer stomach lining. "Oh my," she said.

"Heh, and they call me gluttonous," Munchlax joked.

"Will he be all right?" Joyheart asked in concern.

"Oh yeah, that happens all the time," Dawn said with a nonchalant wave.

"And it's more effective than me dragging him off by his ear-spike," Misty agreed.

"I miss doing that," Max complained.

"We'd like you to give our Dinomon a quick check-up, please," Ash said politely.

Joyheart nodded, getting over the strangeness of watching a tamer get eaten in front of her. She had seen weirder. "All right. Are any of you here for the gym challenge?"

"I am!" Ash said. When he felt the others glaring at him and smelled their annoyance, he quickly added, "But I'm not in a hurry. Is there anything interesting going on in town that a young pack of tamers like us might be interested in?"

Nurse Joyheart frowned. "Well, I'm sorry to say that if you were interested in our town's attractions, you picked a bit of a bad day. We've had a bad Bidoof infestation and most of the public buildings have been sealed off so the vermin can't escape the extermination squads. The gym's still open, though."

Ash tried not to look (or smell) too elated, sensing his packmates' disappointment. "How long will the exterminators take?"

"Oh, not long, they're very efficient," Joyheart assured them. "I think everything will be back in order by tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?!" May complained. "But that's…"

"Tomorrow," Ash agreed. "Well, I guess we'll just have to stick around for it, then."

His friends looked at him in surprise. "Wait, did I just hear you right?" asked an astounded Misty. "Are you suggesting we take a break from your relentless quest to collect badges to stay in town for one day after you've beaten the gym leader to see the sights?!"

Ash frowned. "Yeah, nothing wrong with it, is there?"

"No, it's just…kinda unlike you," Dawn said with a raised eyebrow. "You always seem to be in a hurry to get to the next town, even when we're stopping for a day so I can compete in a contest."

"You sure you're feeling okay?" Pikachu asked, putting a hand on Ash's forehead. "No fevers, shivers, weird sensations or odd fluid secretions? I hear the Nyle Avian Flu's been going around lately…"

"Knock it off!" Ash snarled, lightly swiping his friend's paw off him. "What, I can't decide it's okay if we take a break for a day or two? Even I need a rest now and then! So, we're going to take a break after I get my sixth badge and spend tomorrow going around town, and that's final!"

They could have at least tried to look a little less thrilled, Ash grumbled to himself as his friends and Dinomon danced about joyfully, frightening Nurse Joyheart and all the other tamers. "Well, I can see your Dinomon really do need a checkup," she muttered. "And maybe I should run a quick one on all their tamers, too…" She gestured, and her assistant, Nurse Chansey (also a staple of every Dinomon Center) appeared. "Nurse Chansey will take your Dinomon to the examination room. Is that Seviper yours, too?"

Ash drew a blank. "Seviper?"

"Oh! You mean my toy!" Happiny said, wiggling Team Rocket's Seviper in the air and nearly hitting the rest of the pack with it.

Nurse Joyheart frowned. "Toy? I'm…sorry, but I think it's dead."

Happiny blinked. "Dead?" She started tearing up. "Noooo! But I loved it!" she bawled.

"Well, I guess it was sort of inevitable, considering what happened to it earlier," Max admitted.

"Yeah, especially after we beat it up," agreed Misty.

"And pecked it," said Piplup, causing Blaziken to feel envious because she had missed out on some serious ass-whupping.

"And clawed at it," said Skitty.

"And bit it," added Turtwig, causing Munchlax to drool.

"And tore its eyes out!" Buizel mentioned gleefully.

"And then let Happiny 'play' with it for the last few hours," Togetic commented. "It's no surprise the poor thing's dead, really."

"Oh…" said Joyheart, giving them all disturbed looks.

"It's not ours," Ash said quickly. "Or even wild. A bunch of bandits sicked it on us, we were just trying to defend ourselves."

"Oh, all right, that's okay then," Joyheart said, looking relieved. It was one thing to horribly abuse one's own Dinomon or a wild one, and quite another to do it to an evil one belonging to a lawless bandit. "Do you want me to give it a proper disposal?"

"Nope, I got it," Munchlax said, yanking the dead snake out of the sobbing Happiny's hands and stuffing it headfirst into his mouth.

"Hey, don't hog it all, I wanted some too!" growled Gyarados, quickly biting onto Seviper's tail before Munchlax could slurp it all down.

"I shaw it firsht," Munchlax said through the snake in his mouth as he tried to pull the serpent's tail out of the bigger sea monster's jaws.

"So what? I'm bigger and need more food than you, I have needs too! Plus, we're a pack, so we're supposed to share!" Gyarados snarled back, yanking on his end of the snake and trying to wrench it out of Munchlax's mouth.

Everyone sweatdropped as the two hungry Dinomon started playing tug-of-war with Seviper's corpse while growling death threats at each other. Happiny stopped crying and started clapping, entertained by the barbarous display, as did Azurill, much to Misty's dismay. "You were never this amused by morbid stuff when you were a baby, were you?" she asked Togetic as she picked Azurill up and tried to discipline her.

"I was more of the eternally happy type always getting into trouble," Togetic said with a shrug.

"Tell me about it," Pikachu grumbled, wincing as he remembered all the misadventures he had been forced to go through in the past due to his little sister/niece's innocent yet lethal accident-prone behavior.

"I'll arrange for your Dinomon to be fed, too…" Nurse Joyheart murmured, signaling to Chansey, who nodded. "Now, if you'd just follow my assistant to the back? Oh, and Croagunk, it would probably be best if you spat out your tamer now."

Croagunk shrugged and did just that, dumping a reeking and saliva-covered Brock on the nice clean polished Center floor, causing Joyheart to wince. "I hate when he does that…" Brock groaned as everyone recoiled from him.

…

Chansey led the pack's Dinomon into the depths of the Center to get checked up and treated, leaving the saurian tamers behind. Whatever techniques the Joyheart clan used to perform the medical miracles they seemed to be capable of on a regular basis was a mystery to much of the rest of the world, even other medical practitioners. There were as many theories as to how they treated Dinomon as there were on the origins of the Joyhearts themselves, some particularly gruesome and ominous. Ash didn't really believe most of them, though. He had been around and helped too many Joyhearts to see them as a potential threat. If anything, he doubted he'd have made it this far in his journey without their assistance.

In any event, Joyheart had told them their Dinomon would be ready in about an hour. Brock promptly went off to get cleaned up, while the girls and Max went to the cafeteria to get something to eat. Ash, surprising all of them, said he wanted to stay in the lobby to 'do some thinking.' Allegedly he was formulating tactics to use against the Canalava Gym Leader, Byron, who was reputed to use Steel-type Dinomon. And he was, actually, but he was also pondering solutions for the dilemma with Brock and May. He knew he should probably talk to his mates about this, and he intended to, but as Alpha he couldn't always rely on other people to do his thinking for him. As leader, he needed to take initiative in problem-solving himself.

And it also probably wouldn't be a good idea to talk to them about this in front of one of the problem pack members in question or her brother. He knew that much about tact.

It was in this ponderous move, as he paced about the lobby thinking and annoying the other tamers, that he took notice of something on the magazine rack that all medical offices had to provide people waiting to be treated with something to read. Among all the other titles on display, two leapt out at him; the latest issues of Dinomon League Monthly and Coordinating Weekly. The cover of the former showed a very attractive black and gold-scaled Cobrasaur and a number of other beautiful female saurians beneath the heading 'Top 50 single female League tamers!', while the latter showed a handsome (almost effeminate) Spinoza with impressive green spines and fins with his arms crossed and an indifferent, critical expression on both his face and the face of the Roserade posing next to him, the words 'Secrets of a master coordinator revealed: exclusive interview with Drew of LaRousse! Find out his plans for his upcoming tour in the Sinnoh region!' proudly written over his head.

Ash had a brainstorm, as the solutions to both his problems suddenly became very clear. He rushed over to the rack and grabbed both magazines, nearly knocking over an elderly Stegron who had been there first ("Sorry!" he yelled, ducking to avoid the enraged senior citizen's spiked tail), and quickly found a quiet corner to sit in and examine both his finds. He flipped open Dinomon League Monthly and flipped through the plassheet pages to the cover story, which was a detailed article and list about the top fifty single female League tamers worldwide, with sexy pictures, of course. He was not surprised to note that he actually knew a number of the displayed females, he had needed to fight them to get badges in the past. He was, however, surprised to see Giselle among the ranked females, he had thought she was with that Joe kid.

The tamer he was looking for, Lucy, Pike Queen of Battle Frontier, was ranked tenth out of fifty. (He was rather annoyed that some of Misty's sisters were actually ranked higher, but considering that the League Monthly was more of a sensationalist magazine than anything else, it wasn't a surprise they'd overlook the Waterflower sisters' lack of talent due to their ahem other assets.) The article listed Lucy's age, personal history, and a few other details such as her Dinomon team, win/lose record, and her likes and dislikes. This is what grabbed Ash the most and gave him the most hope, the article said Lucy was into 'strong, dependable guys who are passionate but not too dominating' and admitted a fondness for 'slitted eyes'. Ash couldn't believe he had forgotten about her, Lucy had been one of the only females he had ever met who seemed to respond well to Brock's overactive hormones. If she wasn't the right girl for the suffering Ankilo, nobody was!

He flipped open his Omnidex, a gadget given to him by his mentor Professor Oak, and paged through its list of functions until he found the telecommunications option, and paged through that to find the number he was looking for. The Omnidex was a highly sophisticated piece of technology that was mini-computer, telephone, television, analyzer, scanner, word processor, camera, music player, weather predictor, fortune teller, and handheld database on every Dinomon and saurian species on the planet all in one. It also served as a nifty handwarmer on cold nights, could generate a close-range electroshock for self-defense, and could even be used as a miniature teleportation unit that could swap his active Dinomon with the ones he had left at the Professor's lab in Pallet Town or elsewhere, much like the teleporters used for that purpose in Dinomon Centers and hotels around the world, but smaller and more portable. Just about the only thing it couldn't do was tell time! But that was what the sun was for, after all.

He soon found the contact info he was looking for (wow, he sure had a lot of people's numbers), selected it, and had the 'Dex autodial it. After a few seconds of muted ringing (Thank goodness he had changed the ring tone from that atrocious 'Ring ring ring, ring ring ring, phone call, phone call!' crap that just about every public phone in the world used!), the Omnidex's screen lit up to reveal a short, portly brown-scaled sunglass-wearing Bargosaur wearing blue cloth strips patterned with yellow flowers. "Hello? Who's calling, please?"

"Hey Scott, it's me, Ash Ketchum!" Ash announced loudly, earning him several annoyed looks from the other tamers in the room, causing him to swallow and lower his voice. "Um, it's me, Ash Ketchum."

Scott's eyes lit up, or at least Ash thought they did, he couldn't see behind the saurian's dark sunglasses. "Why, Ash! What a pleasure to hear from you! It's certainly been a while…may I ask the reason for this call? I don't suppose you've reconsidered and decided to become the eighth Frontier Brain after all?"

Ash smirked. He had first met Scott on his return to Kanto after he had lost the Hoenn League finals. Despite his odd sense of fashion, the Bargosaur was surprisingly wealthy and was in charge of the Battle Frontier challenge that had recently been set up around Kanto; a series of seven facilities, each run by a Frontier 'Brain' tougher than most gym leaders Ash had ever fought. A challenger had to go around Kanto and acquire a symbol from each Brain to prove themselves a Frontier Master, and Ash had been the first person to successfully do so. As such, he had been offered a position as a Frontier Brain, but declined since he wasn't ready to settle down yet. "Not just yet, Scott…maybe another time. Actually, I'm calling because I have a favor of sorts to ask you."

Scott raised an eyebrow. "A favor? Now you've got my attention."

"Well…" Ash paused, glancing about furtively. He lowered his voice even further. "Do you know if Lucy's, ah, seeing anyone? I mean, I've heard she's single, but-"

Scott's eyes widened. "Ash, I had no idea you felt that way about Lucy! Hoho, bet Annabel won't be pleased to hear this."

"Ack! No, no, that's not it at all! I'm not interested in Lucy; I'm asking for…a friend. Besides, I'm already happily mated," Ash said quickly. "Oh," said Scott, looking mildly disappointed. "Doubt Annabel will like to hear that, either…" Ash flushed. "So, who's this friend you're asking for?"

"Remember Brock, that Ankilo I was traveling with?" Ash prompted.

"Guy with the weird eyes who can't seem to keep away from the ladies? Yeah, I remember him." Scott frowned. "Oh, I see now…you're trying to get him a ladyfriend, aren't you now?"

Ash nodded. "Brock has a bit of a hormonal problem that makes it difficult for him to be around women without…well, losing it. But Lucy seemed to actually kind of like him when we met her, so I was thinking…"

"That maybe I could help you pair the two of them up? Ash, that's a wonderful idea!" said an impressed Scott. "Certainly, I'd love to help. It's always fun playing matchmaker. What did you have in mind for them, exactly?"

Ash shrugged. "Nothing too complicated. I thought that if I could somehow get the two of them in the same place at the same time, all alone—Brock without his Croagunk and Lucy without her rather zealous followers—they'd be able to take things from there."

Scott nodded. "I see…yes, I think that just might work. Let me check in with Lucy and see what her schedule's like. I'll get back to you by tonight, and we can plan things further from there."

"All right. I'll talk to you later, then," Ash said. Scott hung up. Ash smiled to himself. That was one problem down. Now for the other one.

He opened the issue of Coordinator Weekly and quickly found the cover story. He skimmed the article, not really interested in most of the details, though he made sure to check and see if Drew was seeing anyone or not. (He was amused to see Drew had said "No comment" when the interviewer asked him that question.) The thing that was really important to Ash was whether or not Drew was coming to Sinnoh anytime soon, and much to his relief, he was. Apparently, Drew was taking a short hiatus from the Johto contest circuit so he could come to Sinnoh and give a series of lectures in different cities on how to pull off more stylish moves in Dinomon Contests.

Ash checked the schedule listed in the article for Drew's lecture tour. Ash didn't think there was any way they could attend the majority of the lectures, but…it just so happened that in about a week, he'd be giving a lecture in Jubilife City, which, conveniently enough, Ash's pack was going to have to pass through on the way to Snowpoint City, where Ash intended to acquire his seventh badge. Ash did a few quick calculations (on his Omnidex, his head was no good for figures) and decided that, even if they stayed in Canalava City tomorrow, they should still have just enough time to make it to Jubilife in time for Drew's lecture if they moved at a fast pace. He'd have to be careful in how he broached it to the rest of the group, so as not to sound like he was rushing everyone or trying to set May up. (Though, of course, his most trusted confidants--Pikachu and his mates--would know what was really going on.) He didn't think they'd mind too much, Jubilife was the biggest and most modernized city in Sinnoh, so should have something for everyone to enjoy.

And then, once they got there and attended the lecture…he and the girls would figure out some way to arrange for May and Drew to spend some time together. Maybe not enough to get either of them to confess their feelings for each other, but hopefully long enough for May to realize that just because Ash was unavailable didn't mean there weren't other perfectly good men for her out there.

It occurred to him that, if he was lucky and Lucy could make it in time, he might be able to arrange for her and Brock to have their 'date' in Jubilife at about the same time. That would (hopefully) solve all his problems in one shot! He felt rather pleased at himself for coming up with all this on his own, but managed to deflate his ego by reminding himself he should check with Misty before going forward on any of this. She was the cleverer of the two of them, after all, and much more romantic than he was.

Replacing the magazines, he strolled into the Dinomon Center's cafÈ, joining the rest of his pack, who were still eating lunch. Brock had managed to finish cleaning himself up, and was now chewing on some rather large leaves sprinkled with a variety of spices that he found rather appealing, though everyone else thought they smelled awful. "You're looking rather like the Meowth that caught the Pikachu," the Ankilo commented, chewing up his leaf. He paused and frowned as everyone gave him disgusted looks. "Wait…that probably wasn't the best analogy. My bad."

"Oh, nothing much," Ash said, sliding into the booth his friends were sharing, sitting next to Dawn, who had saved him a space. He ignored the look May gave him. "Just figured out the solutions to a couple of problems I've been having."

"Oh good, so you've finally figured out how to stop snoring so loudly?" Misty asked.

There was a pause. "I don't snore," Ash said defensively.

"Yes you do," his packmates all said flatly.

"Rather loudly, too," Dawn said.

"Yeah, even louder than May," Max agreed.

"I do not snore!" May protested.

"Yes you do," everyone said flatly. She scowled and crossed her arms to glare at them. Ash grimaced, realizing he'd better get her and Drew together as quickly as possible or things might get ugly.

"Anyway, that's not what I figured out. I was just…" He paused, then decided there was no reason not to at least hint at it. "Finding a girlfriend for Brock."

There was a pause. Everyone stared at Ash in disbelief. He was glad nobody was drinking anything, or they probably would have spat it out at him by accident/on purpose. "You're kidding," Misty said, shocked.

"No way," whispered a stunned Dawn.

"That's impossible," Max said incredulously.

"You're…you're joking, right?" Brock asked, giggling uneasily. "You're not…you didn't actually…" Ash gave him a serious look. "You did. YOU DID. OH MY FUCKING ARCEUS YOU…" Without warning, he leaned forward over the table, nearly breaking it due to his weight, and grabbed Ash in a very tight Ursaring hug. "I love you, man. You're the wind beneath my wings and all that stuff. You're the best friend a saurian could ever have."

"Brock…choking…ribs…breaking…" Ash gasped.

"I'M FINALLY GOING TO HAVE A GIRLFRIEND!" Brock shouted to the heavens. The other diners stared at him blankly. A couple clapped awkwardly. One whooped emphatically.

"That's lovely Brock, now can you please let go of Ash before you kill him?" Misty asked, digging her claws into Brock's shoulder.

"Oh. Sorry." Brock let go of Ash and leaned back in his seat as the Raptorex gasped for breath. "Um, I didn't mean to do that…so, who is it? Is it someone I know? Is her name in my Book of Babes? Is she pretty? Will she like me? Does-"

"It's a surprise," Ash coughed as Dawn gave him some water to drink. "Blind date. Still working out all the details. Think you'll be very happy, though."

Brock started crying tears of joy. "Oh, Ash…this is…this is the best gift a guy could ever get. You're the best friend and Alpha a guy could ever have. Thank you. Thank you."

"You can thank me after your date," Ash told him. "Assuming Croagunk doesn't try to eat you or anything to keep you from going. And…do I really snore?"

"Yes," Brock said, still crying.

"Darn," Ash grumbled.

…

Soon after lunch, their Dinomon were returned to them. A sign of how moved and overjoyed Brock was by his upcoming date (which he continued pestering Ash for details about despite the Raptorex's admonitions that not everything had been set up yet) was that he completely failed to go gaga over Nurse Joyheart when she wished them all a good day. Even Croagunk looked surprised by this.

Their bellies full and their health at its peak, they headed over to the Canalava City Gym. It was an imposing fortress-like building made completely out of iron, treated with a special chemical to keep it from rusting due to oxidation. The gym's front door was a towering double gate made out of some shining metal with a pair of giant armored saurian statues standing on either side, clutching spears in their hands that crossed over each other in front of the door, effectively barring the path. As the pack approached the door (having to cross over a lava moat in the process), the eyes of the statues lit up and started glowing red, and their jaws began opening and closing in speech. "WHO DARES APPROACH THIS GYM?"

There were some cries of fright from the most skittish of the group (Skitty, Chimchar, Pachirisu, Azurill, Eecko, May, etc.) at this, but most of the pack was not. It was just a pair of guard automatons, after all. "This guy's kind of a showoff, isn't he?" Pikachu muttered. "Does he really need all this backdrop for effect?"

"Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town!" Ash shouted up to the statues. "Here to challenge Gym Leader Byron for a Mine Badge!"

"HOW MANY BADGES HAVE YOU OBTAINED SO FAR?"

"Five!"

"PRESENT THEM."

Ash did as he was told, opening and holding out the case he kept his badges in. Lasers shot out from the eyes of the statues, running over and scanning each badge in turn to make sure they weren't forgeries. After a moment, the statues' eyes went dim. "YOU MAY PASS." The spears uncrossed, and the double doors rumbled and opened up, allowing entry into the interior.

"Was that really necessary?" Misty complained.

"Sure, it looked cool," said Max. All the males nodded, causing the females to roll their eyes.

They entered the gym. The inside was hot and dim, much like a foundry. Melted ore was being processed all over the place and poured into large metal buckets hanging from the ceiling which moved along conveyors and dumped their contents into vats on the other side of the room. The ore poured from the mouths and eyes of fearsome-looking metal gargoyles and sculptures mounted on the walls, depicting rather intimidating muscular saurian warriors and Steel-type Dinomon. The ground was a long rectangular platform made of metal rising from a pool of lava taking up the floor, with a Dinomon battlefield placed in the center framed by rows of tiered seats on either side. A narrow bridge led from the entrance ledge the pack was standing on to the platform. At the far side of the platform, opposite the doorway (which, naturally, slammed shut once everyone was inside), was a throne designed for a four-legged being placed on top of a mound of metal boulders. In that throne sat a very large and very powerful-looking Bastiodon with several well-used armor plates fastened to his body and a disk-shaped plate attached to the bony natural armor making up his face. "I am Byron, leader of the Canalava City Gym," the Bastiodon rumbled, his voice making the ground vibrate. "Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, you would challenge me for a Mine Badge?"

"Yeah!" said Ash.

"Why else would we be in this REALLY hot place?" Misty panted, fanning herself.

"Very well. I will choose two Dinomon to fight alongside me," said Byron. "Who will you choose?"

"I'll fight with Chimchar and Gliscor," Ash decided. He had thought for a while about this beforehand, and believed they'd be the right Dinomon to use.

"No problem, boss! We'll beat them easily!" Gliscor said with a wink.

"Why the heck does he do that?" Staraptor wondered.

"Who cares?" grunted Buizel, who didn't care, and was also trying not to look like the heat of the gym was making him all sweaty.

"Uh, are you sure you want to use me?" Chimchar asked anxiously.

"Sure, Fire-types have an advantage over Steel-types," Ash said. "And there's no other Fire-type I'd rather have by my side!"

"What about Charrosaur?" Pikachu asked his tamer.

"Shut up, I'm trying to raise his self-confidence," Ash growled under his breath.

Byron nodded. "Very well, then. Prepare yourself."

Ash did just that. His friends helped attach Damage Counters to him, Chimchar, and Gliscor so that they wouldn't actually get wounded in the battle. The Counters were devices of alien origin that Urth scientists had been able to reverse-engineer after the first inter-dimensional Smash Brothers tournament several centuries ago, using them to make official Dinomon battles much less bloody while staying just as violent and satisfying as ever. Before the advent of the Counters, Dinomon battles had been a rather grueling slugfest where the lifespan of tamers and fighters was measured in blows rather than years. For a time tamers had actually stopped fighting physically alongside their Dinomon, but that made the Dinomon resentful since they were being forced to do all the work and face all the risks while their tamers stood on the sidelines, and an ugly revolt might have started which could have engulfed the whole planet in civil war if the emissary of the mysterious Master Hand hadn't appeared to invite the world's greatest tamers and Dinomon to a battle against some of the mightiest warriors in all the multiverse. The tournament utilized sophisticated force-field devices in battles that could translate inflicted damage into fatigue within the body, so that rather than getting killed when someone rammed a sword through your gut, it'd just hurt like hell but not keep you from getting back up and fighting some more. However, getting stabbed too many times would physically exhaust you and keep you from fighting anymore, effectively forcing a fighter to accept defeat less they pass out or be literally flung out of the arena by their opponent. The force-field technology was brought back to Urth after the tournament and reworked by scientists into a more portable form that could be distributed to tamers and their Dinomon so that they could fight each other with all their might and not worry that they might accidentally kill someone or gouge their eyes out or rip off a limb or anything like that. There were, naturally, all sorts of illegal underground rings where fighting without Counters was the preferred method of battling for those who were crazy or bloodthirsty enough or lusted for a more primeval form of fighting, but thankfully Ash and his pack never fought in any official matches without them. Unofficial ones against crooks like Team Rocket, on the other hand…

While the Damage Counters were virtually foolproof, Ash's packmates wrapped bandages around his claws, talons, and tail, and attached caps to his teeth to be safe, just in case. It was a lengthy process, but Ash was as aware as anyone else of how dangerous a Raptorex's strength and natural weapons could be if uncontrolled. He didn't want to be responsible for hurting anybody. (Plus, he'd be expelled from the League if he fought without this regulation safety gear.) "Okay," he said once everything was in place and his friends were in the seats looking down on the battlefield, gratefully drinking water offered to them by some of Byron's attendants and disciples. "I'm ready!"

"You had better be." With a roar, Byron leaped off his throne, landing hard on the other side of the battlefield from Ash. The disk-shaped plate on his forehead trembled and suddenly wrenched itself off and flew into the air, flipping over to reveal it was actually a Bronzor. Similarly, the metal boulders supporting Byron's throne rumbled and suddenly uncurled, rising up to reveal that they weren't boulders at all but the body segments of a very large Steelix, which bellowed at Ash and his team once it had risen to its full height.

"Woo boy," said Gliscor. He winked.

"That's…a big Dinomon," Chimchar said, teeth chattering.

"Don't worry, I've fought Steelix before, they may seem big and tough, but a small and fast guy like yourself can take 'em on with no problem," Ash assured the fire monkey.

"Oh…you think?" Chimchar stood up straighter. "Then…then I'll do my best! Don't worry Ash, I won't let you down!"

Ash smiled at the monkey. "I know."

Up in the stands, Politoad had organized most of the Dinomon (not necessarily willingly) into a cheerleading squad. "All right, everybody! Let's give him all we've got!"

"Remind me why we're doing this again?" asked a puzzled Sudowoodo.

"Because it's fun!" Happiny squealed happily, bouncing up and down.

"How the hell did you get me into this thing?!" Buizel cried, trying to rip off the cheering kimono he was wearing. "Get it off! I don't want to cheer!"

"Too bad, you don't have a choice," Pikachu said.

"Go Ash and Chimchar!" Ambipom hooted, using both her tails to balance on her rear so she could form somersaults in place. "You can do it!"

"Ash, Gliscor and Chimchar! Ash, Gliscor and Chimchar! Ash, Gliscor and Chimchar!" Politoed and his squad cheered, waving pompoms and fans about.

"They look very cute, don't they?" Misty commented, holding Azurill in her lap to pour water into the little mouse's mouth. "Even Gyarados looks like he's enjoying himself!"

"Where'd they get a kimono that big?" Brock wondered, staring at the robes Gyarados was wearing.

"Why's Dawn up there with them?" May asked scathingly, glaring at Dawn, who had donned several ribbons and brightly colored cloth bands and was dancing about with her pompoms in tune to Politoed's directions, her neck frill extended to its fullest. "And dressed like that?"

"She likes cheering on Ash like that," said Misty. "What, you mean you never did that?"

"No…" May muttered under her breath. "I never saw any reason to make a fool out of myself."

"You let your Dinomon cheer and make fools of themselves," Max pointed out.

"Shut up, Max!" May snapped.

"This will be a three-on-three battle, Ash of Pallet Town and his Chimchar and Gliscor against Byron of Canalava City with his Bronzor and Steelix," the official League judge standing on the sidelines announced as Ash's team and Byron's team faced off. "Saurian vs. saurian and Dinomon vs. Dinomon. Fighters can work together or take on their opponents separately. There is no time limit, and no substitution allowed. Whichever team manages to completely knock out the other is the winner." The judge raised a flag. "Ready…DINOBATTLE!" He swiped the flag down, signaling the beginning of the match.

…

Meanwhile, in the Hall of Origin…

"Hmm. Fascinating," said Arceus, looking between a pair of viewing portals. One displayed the Raptorex Ash along with Chimchar and Gliscor fighting against the Bastiodon Byron and his Steelix and Bronzor while his friends cheered from the sidelines. The other portal displayed the same battle, except…Ash and Byron were both humans, and were only pitting one Pokemon against each other, rather than fighting all at once. His friends were there as well, but there were fewer of them, most if not all of the Pokemon locked away in their Pokeballs. "The two timelines have distinct and rather glaring differences, and yet certain fundamentals remain in place in both universes. Was this your intention, Mew?"

Mew shrugged. "Pretty much. I saw no reason that people who lived in one timeline shouldn't be born in another just because history had been completely altered, so arranged for certain things to stay the same."

"How the heck were you able to do that, anyway?" asked an incredulous Palkia. "I thought your specialty was making life, not warping time and space to create a parallel universe!"

"I have the DNA of every living creature that has ever existed or ever will exist inside me," Mew said. "Including yours and Dialga's. While I'm not as used to utilizing that power as you two are, I can still do it to a fair degree when I try hard enough."

"It's rather incredible, though…" murmured the astounded Ho-Oh, who was covered in red, white, and gold scales as well as feathers, had teeth growing in his beak, and a bone crest growing from the top of his head rather than a feathery one. "There's another universe right alongside our own, with creatures almost exactly like us but different, and a completely different dominant species! And…" He sighed. "I've had as few adventures in that universe as I have in this one, other than some brief cameos and blowing up a helicopter."

"I can't believe there's a universe where the three of us are fighting all the time," said an astounded Zapdos, shaking his spiky head.

"Yeah, why the heck would we? There's no point," Articuno agreed.

"Well, Groudon and Kyogre and Palkia and Dialga fight all the time, but that's different," Moltres, last of the three elemental pterodactyls, admitted.

"Hey!" the four titans in question roared.

"I'm certainly glad that in this universe I don't have to babysit you three all the time, unlike that poor sap in the other world," Lugia, who looked pretty much exactly like his Pokemon counterpart, said to the three pterodactyls, who nodded in agreement.

"At least I'm still as handsome a devil there as I am here," said Raikou, who also looked pretty much the same except a bit shaggier and with longer fangs.

"But why am I a guy there?" a much slimmer and more feminine Entei asked in confusion, glancing at her friend Suicune, who shrugged.

"And why am I DEAD there?! The hell's that about?!" complained Latios. He frowned at his sister. "And why were you in love with a hairbrained mammal for a while?"

Latias huffed. "Well, at least she got over it…and found the right guy for her, just like I did here," she said, glancing at Rayquaza, who flushed.

"What I want to know is why I went crazy and kept pursuing those Deoxys like a jerk," the big green dragon commented. "That seems so unlike me."

Palkia and Dialga fidgeted. "Er…"

Rayquaza glared at them. "Don't tell me, I went to another convention with you idiots and got drunk again, didn't I? Arceus, what was I thinking?"

"That while you'd probably regret it, it would be a good break from the missus," Arceus commented.

Latias gasped, and Rayquaza stammered. "I didn't mean that literally! L-Latias, don't look at me like that, it was a different me who thought that, not me! The me here, I mean…I mean, not the me…oh, forget it."

"Why do we talk in beeps and boops over there?" wondered a puzzled Regice. "What's stopping us from using regular speech, just like everyone else? Are our counterparts idiots or something?"

"Actually, I think they only fake stupidity by talking like that so that everyone else will think they're dumb and won't assign them any hard work," Registeel theorized.

The other Regis' looked at the Steel-type in awe. "…That's brilliant," said a stunned Regirock.

"How come we never thought of that?!" complained Regigigas.

"And why haven't we gotten to do anything interesting other than me showing up to that Dawn girl one time?" whined Mesprit. "We're important too…" Azelf and Uxie nodded in agreement.

"Nobody cares about you," Giratina said menacingly. "Everyone thinks you're just rip-offs of Mew, Celebi, and Jirachi."

"But WE came first!" Azelf protested.

"Yeah, funny how that works…" Giratina said. "I mean, it's not as if Mew, Celebi, or Jirachi went out and about more often and did stuff to get discovered first rather than just sitting at the bottom of a lake all day…oh, wait, my mistake, they do." He laughed, and they growled at him.

"Why is the other me so…emo?" wondered Mewtwo, who was pink. "And has such an awful fashion sense? I mean really, he could do better than that tattered brown rag."

"I'm happy to see I'm still as badass as ever, no matter what universe I'm in," Darkrai said. "Though I'm a bit cheesed that some idiots KILLED me for trying to break up a stupid fight…" He glared at Dialga and Palkia with one green eye, and they shuddered.

"It was NOT stupid!" Dialga protested. "Palkia started it!"

"I did not!" Palkia said angrily.

"Yes you did, you said my gemstone makes me look gay!" snarled Dialga.

"Well, it DOES!" Palkia shouted.

"Yeah, well at least I'm not PINK!" Dialga snapped.

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK!" Palkia roared, causing the Hall to tremble and begin disintegrating.

"Ahem," said Arceus.

Palki and Dialga paled and calmed down. "Right. Sorry. Forgot we're not supposed to fight in the Hall," said Dialga.

"My bad," Palkia whimpered, cowering slightly.

Cresselia rolled her eyes. "Idiots…" She frowned at Darkrai. "What I want to know is why the hell some version of you would run off for forty years without even TELLING ME where you were all that time?!"

Darkrai shrugged. "Well, I can't say I haven't thought of it from time to time…"

"WHAT?!" shrieked Cresselia, turning a very angry red.

"You CAN be rather difficult to be around, whenever you get all PMS-y, which is most of the time," Darkrai said casually. Naturally, that caused his counterpart to utter a bloodcurdling howl and start beating the crap out of him. "BWAHAHAHAHA-OW-AHAHAHA-OW-AHAHAHA! IT MIGHT HURT, BUT IT'S-OW-WORTH IT! IT'S SOOOOOOO-OW WORTH IT!!" The other legendaries sweatdropped.

"How did I not notice something like this?!" asked a stunned Celebi.

"Because you're just a small fry when it comes to time travel. You're stuck in the timeline of one universe, whereas I can traverse all of them," Dialga said smugly. Celebi glared at him but made no comment.

"What I don't quite understand," Jirachi, who was there in astral projection form since he was sleeping at the moment. "Is why Mew did all this in the first place…and why there's still a universe where those icky human things still exist. Didn't you tell those ancient saurian guys that history would be changed so that humans never existed?"

"I did, and they were," Mew said. "Buuut…temporal mechanics is really complicated, so it's no wonder they misunderstood what I was really trying to do."

"Which was…" Just about everyone else, except for Arceus (who already knew, since he knew everything anyway), asked.

"It's like this. History can change, but it doesn't necessarily erase the future," Dialga explained. "Think of the time stream like a wishbone. Starts out straight, but then it can diverge in two or more different directions. If a time traveler goes back into the past and changes something, the original timeline still exists but a new timeline, a whole other universe reflecting that change in history, is born alongside it. Happens all the time."

"Yeah, due to retcons or Dialga screwing things up," commented Palkia.

"Hey!"

"Okay, but that still doesn't explain WHY Mew wanted to create two parallel Urths, or Earths, or whatever!" said an exasperated Uxie.

"For fun? I would do that if I had the power," commented Darkrai, who was badly beaten and bruised from Cresselia's assault but still in cheerful good spirits.

"Well…yeah, it was partly for fun," Mew admitted, causing everyone to facefault. "But I had a more important reason for doing it, too. I wasn't just creating a universe where the saurians still existed, I was saving the human race from being wiped out too!"

"Huh?" everyone said dumbly.

She floated over to the portal displaying the human Ash fighting Byron. "You see, if I had left things alone, one hundred years in the future of the original universe another asteroid, even bigger than the one that killed the saurians, would strike the planet hard enough to completely destroy it and wipe out all humans and Pokemon for all time. Nobody, not even Rayquaza, would have been able to stop it."

"Oh my," said an alarmed Rayquaza.

"So, I whipped up this scheme to create a whole separate timeline not only to keep the saurian race from dying out…but also as a place to shunt the asteroid in the future to. One hundred years from now, that giant ball of death will approach the Urth…but whereas the humans and Pokemon of the original timeline wouldn't have been able to do anything about it, the people of this world have technology advanced enough, due to the longevity of their civilization, to blast it out of the sky," Mew explained. "And then both worlds on both universes may continue advancing to the future."

There was a moment of silence as everyone processed this. "Wait…that's…that's all rather convoluted," said a confused Shaymin.

Mew nodded. "Yeah, I know."

"How the heck did you even know to do all of this?! I mean, you've got all sorts of incredible skills, but you couldn't possibly have seen that far into the future!" Celebi insisted.

"I didn't," Mew agreed. "I knew to do it because my future self traveled back in time to tell me what to do."

There was another long pause. "Your future self," Mewtwo said slowly after a moment.

Mew nodded. "Yep, from a universe in which the asteroid did hit Earth and everyone was wiped out."

"Wait…then does that mean there's ANOTHER parallel timeline?!" cried a horrified Articuno.

"I'm probably dead there, too," Latios grumbled. Latias rolled her eyes.

"Arrrrgh! My head hurts!" Groudon roared.

"Yeah, thinking usually does that to you," Kyogre said snidely.

"Time travel is so confusing," Cresselia complained.

"Yeah, tell me about it," Dialga agreed. The others stared at him. "What? It is. Just because I do it all the time doesn't mean I always understand what the hell's going on."

"Well, now that I've told you guys everything that's going on, I'd better go and tell everyone back in the original timeline what's up," Mew said, causing the portals to disappear with a wave of her hand.

"Wait…aren't you OUR Mew? Or are you theirs?" asked a very puzzled Celebi.

"Oh, I'm both," Mew said casually. "I can be in lots of different places and times at once. I'm just cool like that."

Everyone groaned. "Great, now it's even MORE confusing!" complained Regirock.

"I think my head's going to explode!" moaned Raikou.

"Groudon's already has," Kyogre commented, glancing at the big red Continent Pokemon, who was lying on the floor drooling and twitching.

"It's not really that hard a concept to understand," said Palkia. "Though it may look otherwise, there's really only one Mew throughout the multiverse, just like there's only one of me and Dialga too."

"Thankfully," Dialga muttered.

"Similarly, there's only one of me," Arceus said. "I am simultaneously here with you all, as well as in that other timeline, and in all others as well. It's part of being omnipresent."

Mewtwo scowled. "Why can't I be omnipresent?"

"You are, sweetie, there's one of you in most universes," said Mew.

"But they're not ME, they're other Mewtwos!" Mewtwo protested. "It's not the same thing!"

"Huh…guess that's true. Oh well." Mew shrugged. "Sucks to be you, then." She vanished. Everyone sweatdropped.

"She is so weird," grumbled Celebi.

"You sure you didn't screw up when you made her?" Kyogre asked Arceus. He glared at her, and she cowered away. "Right. Sorry."

"I rather like her," Darkrai commented. "Her sense of humor and random way of doing things is just the sort of thing I strive for, too!"

Cresselia sighed. "Unfortunately for the rest of us."

Darkrai chuckled. "Yes, well, that's the idea."

…

Back in the Canalava City Gym…that's CanaLAVA, not Canalave…

"Chimchar, Gliscor, you guys hit him high, and I'll hit him low!"  
Ash cried, charging towards Steelix, who was the only one of Byron's team still standing.

The Steelix roared angrily and swiped a glowing Iron Tail at the Raptorex, who leaped over it using the natural jumping ability all of his kind possessed. While Steelix was distracted by Ash's jump, Gliscor swooped down and grabbed Chimchar, carrying him high into the air above the Steel Pokemon's head. Waiting until Steelix was looking the other way, Gliscor let go of Chimchar and twirled about, smacking the monkey with his tail and flinging the Fire Dinomon at the iron snake. Chimchar curled into a ball and ignited the air around him, spinning into a Flame Wheel. Sensing the incoming heat, Steelix whirled about. His eyes widened, and he prepared to Dig underground to escape. However, Ash delivered an extremely powerful kick to one of the joints in Steelix's body segments, causing the metal serpent to gasp and flinch, stunning him just long enough for the flaming Chimchar to slam into his face with a terrific crash.

As Chimchar rebounded and landed neatly on his feet, Steelix recoiled, roaring in agony and fury…before collapsing to the ground, unconscious. A gong rang somewhere, and the judge waved his flags in the air. "Byron's team is no longer able to battle! The challenger and his team from Pallet Town have won the battle!"

Ash's packmates and cheerleading squad burst into applause. "You did it, Ash! Great job!" Brock cried.

"We knew you could do it!" added Misty.

"We didn't doubt you for a minute, aside from that one point when it looked as if Byron was going to squash you flat under his body weight," pointed out Max.

"Shut up," Pikachu said, zapping Max.

"Ash, Ash, you are the saurian to be! With your fierce claws and kicks you've won a vic-to-ry! With Chimchar's flames and Gliscor's sting, the final bell you were sure to ring!" Politoad directed the cheerleaders. "Goooo Team Ash!"

"Hahaha, as if there was any chance we'd fail!" Gliscor laughed, winking.

"Chimchar, you did great! We're going to have wild monkey sex later!" Ambipom yelled loudly, causing Chimchar to flush in embarrassment.

"You can expect some too, Ash!" Misty said.

"From both of us!" Dawn added. Ash's eyes bulged, and his Dinomon laughed at him. May fumed and glared at Ash's mates, but said nothing.

"Wait, don't I get any?" Gliscor whined.

"Maybe if you stopped winking all the time for no reason," said Beautifly.

"Oh," said Gliscor. He winked. "Dammit."

"Ung…outstanding!" commented Byron as he staggered to his feet, his attendants rushing over to unbuckle his armor. "I've been beaten many times this week, but that technique you used was rather…innovative."

Ash sweatdropped. Byron was referring to how he had tried to get Gliscor to lift him into the air and drop him on Byron's back, where the Bastiodon would be unable to reach him, but since he was far too heavy he ended up falling flat on his face right in front of Byron, who accidentally tripped over him while charging towards an unnoticing Chimchar and knocked himself out. "Uh, yeah…I intended to do that…"

"I'm sure you did," Byron said without a trace of irony in his voice. He stamped a foot on the ground, and one of his attendants rushed over with a small round bit of metal on a cushion. "As winner of the match, I award you this Mine Badge, symbol of your victory over Canalava City!"

Ash took the badge and twirled around, posing dramatically with his arm thrust outward and the Mine Badge held between two of his outstretched claws in a 'V for victory' style. "Yeah! I got…a Mine Badge!"

"Woohoo!" cheered Chimchar.

"Bwahahaha!" laughed Gliscor, who winked.

"…The hell was that?" asked a disturbed Byron.

"Huh?" asked Ash.

"That…that pose. What the heck was that?"

"Oh. Uh…it's just my victory pose. The thing I do whenever I win a big battle and get a badge," Ash explained, somewhat embarrassed.

"Ah," said Byron. He frowned. "You might want to stop doing that. It makes you look like an idiot."

Ash flushed. "It-it does not!"

"Yes it does," said Pikachu.

"Yeah, we've been trying to tell you that for years, but noooo, you just wouldn't listen," said Misty, rolling her eyes.

"At least he's finally taken to brushing his teeth regularly, after his mom…and us…told him to every day for the last few years," Brock commented.

"Guuuuyyyyys!" Ash moaned as everyone, including Byron's attendants, started laughing at him. "It's not that funny…"

Byron sweatdropped. "How the heck did I lose to this guy?" he muttered to himself.

Despite his profound humiliation on the part of his friends, Ash was actually rather pleased with how the day had gone. He had earned a badge and had made significant progress on getting Brock a girlfriend and possibly setting up May to mate with Drew. Resolving those problems would restore balance to the pack and prevent disorder, the sort of thing any good Alpha would be proud of.

Plus, he was going to get double victory sex later from Dawn and Misty. That was something to look forward to, as well.

Now if only they would stop laughing…

…

The End


	20. Mewbrina

Mewbrina

Disclaimer: All characters are owned by other people.

Author's Note: D'oh! Can't believe I forgot this earlier! Written by Ri2 - though it should be obvious. It's got his humor all over it.

…

It was still early in the evening, so Heatran's Tavern was mostly empty of its usual patronage. That hadn't stopped a few miserable lugs from wandering in while the sun was still up, looking for a drink and someplace to unwind from the stress of everyday life.

Most of those weary souls were scattered around the dark and dimly lit interior of the bar, sitting by themselves at tables and booths or clustered around the dartboard, though none of them seemed to have particularly good aim. A few of the tired patrons were sitting in front of the small stage set in the corner of the shady tavern, upon which an especially busty and slutty Jynx (named Lola, according to her nametag) thoroughly mangled some love song written by a composer nobody had ever heard of. Lola was a terrible singer, but good for business…people came to see her cleavage, and her singing was awful enough to drive more patrons to drink, which made the proprietor of Heatran's very pleased.

Said proprietor, the eponymous Heatran, looked over the row of rather tired and unhappy-looking legendary Pokemon sitting on stools in a row from the other side of the bar counter separating them. "You all look pretty down, fellas," Heatran commented in his deep baritone voice as he poured them all some drinks. "What's the problem? Why the long faces, other than those who were born that way, that is?"

Mewtwo, a tall vaguely feline white and purple Pokemon, chugged down his drink and slammed the empty glass back down on the counter telekinetically hard enough to crack both the glass and the counter. "Women," he said bitterly. The other Legendaries all nodded and made noises of agreement as they nursed their own drinks.

Heatran nodded in understanding. "Ah, I see, the little ladies in your lives giving you boys trouble?"

"I wouldn't exactly call all of them 'little,'" grumbled Lugia.

"It's getting around that time of year when Latios died," Rayquaza said with a sigh, his long coils twitching restlessly. "And Latias always gets so depressed right about now…and try as I might, I can never seem to make her happy. It just makes me feel so inadequate sometimes…like nothing I ever do is good enough to take her mind off her brother's passing."

"Heh, I _wish_ there were something like that to take Cresselia's mind off of me sometimes," complained the shadowy Darkrai. "Then maybe she'd stop making such irrational demands of me…'Darkrai, our anniversary's coming up, you'd better not forget it, _again!_'…'Darkrai, why don't you ever talk to me anymore, I have feelings too, you know'…'Darkrai, how many times have I told you not to cast random people into horrible nightmares, it's not nice, snap him out of it right now!'…'Darkrai, just because that stupid Baron with the bad fashion sense and morbidly obese Likiliki keeps pestering you is no reason to violently kill him and paint the walls of his mansion red with his entrails, so put him down NOW!'…'Darkrai, don't cast the world into eternal darkness, then how will all those poor humans and Pokemon be able to live out their lives in peace?' Bah! She never lets me have any fun…"

"Yeah, neither does Kyogre," Groudon grumbled. "That bitch is always trying to get me to give up more coastline so her stupid water can cover more of the planet…what, the sixty or seventy percent she already has isn't enough for her already?! And don't get me started on that Manaphy kid of hers who's always going about that sea temple of his like he owns the place, I fucking _hate_ that brat…I'd squash him flat if I didn't think it'd make her even MORE pissed off…"

"Mrs. Lugia keeps nagging me to spend more time with her and the boy," grumbled Lugia. "She doesn't seem to understand that if I take my eyes off those idiot birds for more than a minute, they'll try to kill each other and destroy the world again."

"Er, then what are you doing here?" asked an alarmed Rayquaza.

"Don't worry, they're right over there," said Lugia, gesturing with his wing over to a table where Zapdos, Articuno, and Moltres, drunk out of their minds, were lolling about and falling asleep on top of each other. "Hmm…maybe I should give them alcohol more often…"

"Shaymin won't stop giving me flowers and trying to 'brighten up' my lair," Giratina groused. "She doesn't seem to understand that as the Lord of Death and all that, any flower that gets within ten feet of me dies instantly. And that my lair's supposed to be dark and dingy because I like it that way. Ugh…sometimes I wonder what I was thinking, marrying that hedgehog…dog…plant thing."

"Beep bop boop bop bop beep bop beep beep beep bobop," Registeel said, gesturing about with its arms for effect. "Bop beep bop boop beep boop beep bop beep boop!"

The others nodded in sympathy. "I hear that," said Darkrai, raising his glass.

"Yeah, that's rough, man," Rayquaza agreed.

"Sounds like you fellas are having a hard time with the missuses," Commented Heatran. He glanced at Mewtwo. "But why're you so glum, kitty-cat? You've only been married for what, three months? You can't have had your idealized romantic views of each other shattered already, can you?"

Mewtwo grimaced. Almost a year ago, his 'mother' Mew had gotten it into her head that he needed a girlfriend, so transformed the psychic gym leader of Saffron City, Sabrina, into an incredibly attractive female Mewtwo and locked them in his cave for about six months so that they could take advantage of complete isolation to either fall in love or murder each other without causing any collateral damage. Needless to say, after quite a lot of screaming at each other, energy blasts, and violent explosions, they had managed to fall in love…though the poor cave was never the same again. They got married soon after Mew showed up to let them out in a beautiful ceremony ordained by Arceus himself. However…it was clear that something had soured for the happy couple since that day. "It's not like that," Mewtwo said defensively. "You see…" He sighed. "She wants kids."

His friends shook their heads pityingly. "You poor sap," Darkrai said.

"Yeah, you can kiss your happy status as the single male your wife loves goodbye," Groudon agreed.

"Not to mention your sex life is going to take a serious hit," Lugia added.

"It's not like that!" Mewtwo protested. "I _want_ kids! The problem is we…can't have them. The thing is…" He grimaced. "When Mew turned Sabrina into a female of my own kind…"

"And one _sexy_ female, too," Giratina added.

Mewtwo glared at him. "She gave Sabrina a fully working and fertile set of female reproductive organs. But I, on the other hand…" He ground his teeth. "Giovanni wanted to be able to control the replication of creatures like myself, so had his scientists essentially…sterilize me when they made me. So, I'm capable of mating, but…I'm basically shooting blanks. No baby Mewtwos from me…ever."

There was a long silence as everyone comprehended this. "That's horrible," Rayquaza said finally.

"I'm…so sorry," Lugia said after a moment, feeling momentarily guilty, seeing as how he had, in fact, been able to reproduce, whereas his friend clearly would never be able to.

"Ha! Sucks to be you!" Groudon laughed. Giratina hit him. "Ow…"

"Want me to kill your dad?" Darkrai offered.

"Would you?" Mewtwo asked hopefully.

Darkrai nodded. "Sure, if Cressellia will let me…the woman does _not_ seem to understand that there are people in this world who deserve to die horribly while screaming at the top of their lungs."

"I hear that," Giratina agreed.

"Beep boop bebop boop boop beep bop beep beep boop boop bop," Registeel said.

Mewtwo looked touched. He started tearing up. "Thanks, you guys…that means a lot to me. You're the best friends a clone could have."

"So, you can't fertilize your wife…and what, she kicked you out of the house?" Heatran asked, handing Mewtwo a fresh glass as he tried to get his customers back on topic.

The psychic took a sip of his alcohol. "Hmm? Well, no, not exactly," Mewtwo said. "While I may be unable to make her pregnant the usual way, I'm still a master of genetics. So, we tried cloning."

"And how'd that go?" Heatran asked.

Mewtwo's eyes flashed. He drank down the contents of his glass in one gulp and slammed it back onto the counter. "Total. Failure." He sighed and put his head in his hands. "We've made one hundred and fifty-one attempts at creating a baby made from our combined DNA. Every single embryo died before it could develop fully. I'm still not sure why, our genes should be able to combine in theory and I _know_ I'm doing the cloning process correctly, but every single attempt fails nonetheless. Sabrina took the death of number 151 rather hard…it actually looked as if that one would survive. She had her hopes up. And then it died. She started getting all emotional and accused me of intentionally sabotaging the cloning process so that we couldn't have any children."

"And have you?" Heatran asked.

"No! Of course not!" Mewtwo yelled angrily. "And I don't think she really thinks so either, but…she's angry and frustrated and upset right now, so I decided it would be better for both our sakes…and for my continued health…if I were to vacate the premises for a little while. And so I find myself here."

Heatran passed him another drink. Mewtwo drank it gingerly. His friends said nothing. A heavy silence fell over the bar. "…That bites, man," Heatran said finally. He frowned in thought. "Hey, you said you were a master of genetics. So why don't you, I dunno, do something to yourself so you got sperm?"

"Tried it," Mewtwo grunted. "Didn't work."

"What about Mew?" Rayquaza suggested. "Do you suppose there's something she could do? She _is_ the Mother of all life, after all, if anyone could fix this, she probably could."

Giratina shook his head. "No good, she and Arceus went off on their nine thousand seven hundred and fifty-third honeymoon. Won't be back for a decade, at least."

"Man, how do some guys manage to maintain perfect marriages while the rest of us have to deal with one crisis after another? Fucking perfect God," Darkrai complained. The other married Pokemon all grumbled in agreement.

"You're lucky, Heatran. At least you don't have to deal with angry PMS-ing women demanding your time and ruining your life," Groudon said.

Heatran frowned. The room started to get a lot hotter…which was a problem, considering that most of the drinks in the bar were combustible. "What's that supposed to mean? Are you implying that I can't get a woman or something?"

"Uh, no, that's not it at all," Groudon said quickly, realizing it was probably a bad idea to insult the guy giving you your booze. "I just meant that, you know, since you're single and all, you're lucky not to have to deal with all the crazy demands women constantly make of us attached guys."

Heatran raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Is that what you think? Good Arceus, I didn't think you were _that_ stupid."

Groudon blinked in confusion. "Huh?"

Before Heatran could elaborate, there was a bright flash of light and suddenly a Gardevoir teleported into the room, causing many patrons to cry out in alarm or pain since they had gotten used to the dim interior of Heatran's Tavern and the sudden influx of brilliance was blinding them or aggravating their sore heads. The Gardevoir was incredibly beautiful, with shiny pearly white skin, long delicate legs with curves that seemed to go on forever, a more than generous figure and ample bosom, soft and luxurious green hair, and gleaming red eyes filled with worry. The smell of roses and cherries filled the room as she anxiously rushed over to the bar, causing a few of the more heavily sedated clientele to pass out or get nosebleeds as she passed them by. "Heatran!" she cried, shoving past the startled legendaries clustered around the bar and anxiously trying to get the tavern proprietor's attention.

"Marie! What's wrong, babycakes?" the alarmed Heatran asked, putting down the glass he had been cleaning.

"Lily's water just broke, she's about to lay her egg!" the Gardevoir, apparently named Marie, said frantically.

Heatran gasped. "What?! That can't be, she's still got a few weeks left!"

"Joya says she's birthing prematurely…and we're not sure she'll make it! The others sent me over to get you immediately, you can't miss this!" Marie explained.

"Hell no I can't!" Heatran agreed, tearing off his apron and throwing it into a corner. "Sorry gents, I'm afraid the Tavern's closing early today, I've got personal business to take care of!"

"Wait, I don't understand. What's going on? Who're Lily and Joya?" asked the very confused Rayquaza.

"And how do you know Marie here?" Groudon asked, looking at the Gardevoir with poorly-disguised lust.

"Huh? Oh, Lily, Joya, and Marie are three of my dozen or so extraordinarily beautiful, brainy, and loving wives," Heatran explained as he came out from the other side of the bar and scurried over to Marie. "And Lily's apparently about to give birth to my twenty-seventh child several weeks early! I can't let her go through that by herself! Well, not that she'll be by herself, she's got her sister-wives to take care of her, but you know what I mean!"

The legendaries' jaws dropped. "You're MARRIED?!" Groudon cried.

"To twelve or so women who're all as attractive, if not more so, than this babe here?!" asked an incredulous Darkrai.

"And you're about to have your TWENTY-SEVENTH child?!" a shocked Giratina questioned.

"Beep beep boobeep boop beep!" Registeel added.

"I don't believe this…" Mewtwo muttered, banging his head onto the counter.

"Man, some guys get all the luck…" murmured a stunned Lugia.

"I'll see you all later. But, before you go, I'll do my duty as a bartender by giving all of you advice to help you with your problems. Rayquaza, you need to tell Latias how her depression makes you feel. Darkrai, take anger management or something. Groudon, talk to Kyogre rationally and explain how you feel about her stealing your land, and if she doesn't stop, make a few islands in the middle of the ocean. Lugia, try drugging the birds with sedatives so that they'll actually like each other for a while, hopefully long enough for you to go on vacation with your family. Giratina, try suggesting Shaymin give you lilies, they're affiliated with death (I think) so you can probably be around them without killing them. Registeel, if you want to get a sex change, go right ahead, don't let what other people think of you control your life. And Mewtwo, did you ever think of adoption?"

"Yes, but Sabrina and I want kids that are genetically similar to us," Mewtwo pointed out. "If they're adopted, they'll be of another species entirely."

Heatran rolled his eyes. "You said you're a master of genetic stuff. Why don't you just _change_ the kids so they're biologically related to you?" Mewtwo's eyes widened in amazement. "And with that, I'm out. Seeya!" Heatran and Marie teleported away.

"Adoption followed by genetic reconfiguration…why didn't I think of that?!" Mewtwo whispered in astonishment.

"Drugs…why didn't _I_ think of _that?!_" Lugia wondered.

"You're thinking of changing sexes?! I thought you were having relationship issues!" an astonished Giratina cried at Registeel.

"I didn't even know it _had_ a gender…" Darkrai muttered.

"Beep bop beep beep bop boop!" Registeel beeped angrily.

Darkrai raised his hands in apology. "Okay, okay, I was out of line! Sorry…"

Groudon snorted. "Talk to her rationally? Screw that! I'm just gonna beat her up…that usually works…yeah…"

Mewtwo got out of his seat. "I need to go talk to Sabrina. I'll see you all later. This might be just what I was looking for…" He teleported away.

The other legendaries sat there in silence for a moment. "So…what do we do now?" Rayquaza asked. "Heatran's gone, which means we can't get anymore drinks…"

"Ooh, I know, let's go kill Giovanni, that'll be fun!" Darkrai suggested.

"Hell yeah!" Giratina agreed.

"Eh, why not?" Lugia said with a shrug, glancing at his three charges. "I don't think the idiots will be going anywhere anytime soon…might as well."

"Hic…Moltresh…you're…you're my besht enemy ever…I hate you sho much," an incredibly drunk Articuno said to Zapdos, who was passed out and snoring loudly.

"Awww…hic…I hate you too, Articuno…hic…" Moltres droned, his head wobbling dizzily as he addressed the jukebox. "Come give me a hug…hic…" He stumbled out of his seat and across the floor, his big flaming wings flapping all over the place and nearly burning the skins off of several of the bar's patrons, before he abruptly tripped and fell on his face, burying his long pointed beak into the floor and knocking himself unconscious.

Lugia chuckled. "They're going to have one hell of a hangover in the morning…Groudon, what do you think you're doing?"

"What?" Groudon asked, looking up from the lewd symbols he was scribbling onto Zapdos' face with a marker. "Just having a little fun. That a problem?"

"…Eh, not really. I'd join you, but I don't really have opposable thumbs," Lugia admitted. "Go ahead."

"'K." Groudon continued his scribbling.

"Beep boop beep bop beep boop," Registeel said, shaking its head.

Rayquaza nodded in agreement. "You said it, my friend, you said it."

…

Sabrina looked across the kitchen table at her mate, a skeptical expression on her face. "Adoption."

"And genetic reconfiguration," Mewtwo added happily.

"Right. Adoption and genetic reconfiguration," Sabrina said, not really caring that she had been corrected or had needed to be corrected. "That's your big idea to fix our little problem. Take some kid who's lost his or her parents and strip away their humanity completely just so we can have a child of our own."

Mewtwo thought about that for a moment. "Well, when you put it like that…yeah, pretty much." He shrugged. "We don't really have a choice but to use a human. We've already tried altering the DNA of Pokemon fetuses still in their eggs, and…well, they've been stillborns every time. And I'm sure you remember as well as I do what happened to the _live_ Pokemon we tried reconfiguring to see if their more matured bodies would be better able to handle Mewtwo genes."

They both grimaced and glanced in the direction of a tunnel leading much deeper into the network of caves they called home. At the bottom of a zigzagging labyrinth of passageways, tunnels, crevices and corridors was an incredibly thick heavily secured vault door with 'FAILED EXPERIMENTS' written on its surface in blood-red letters. Faint moaning from behind the door drifted up through the tunnels to the kitchen, causing both Mewtwos to shudder.

Sabrina brushed some of her luxurious waist-length dark green hair back from her face to calm herself down. Mewtwo admired her form as she did so, once more thanking Mew profusely for doing such an amazing job of turning a human into an exceptionally attractive female specimen of his species…and the first ever, at that. Her form was slimmer and shapelier than his own (with a generous chest), with slender curved double-jointed legs ending in twin toes, a long prehensile purple tail a bit lengthier and more whip-like than Mewtwo's own, causing it to resemble a Mew's tail more than a Mewtwo's, dainty-looking (but surprisingly powerful) three-fingered hands at the end of slender curved arms, a softer and lovelier version of his own face with big luminescent purple eyes and curving ear horns growing from the top and back of her head. She caught him staring and glared. He didn't really care. "How do you know that any human you change won't wind up like…them?"

"You didn't," Mewtwo pointed out bluntly.

"That's because Mew changed me," Sabrina pointed out bluntly.

Mewtwo rolled his eyes. "I know. Look, I've already done some simulations, and most of my tests indicate that human genes would be more receptive of being converted into Mewtwo DNA than those of most Pokemon."

"And why is that?" Sabrina asked doubtfully.

"Because humans suck. Duh," Mewtwo said, as if it were obvious.

Sabrina glared at him. "_I_ used to be human."

Mewtwo smirked. "Yeah. _Used_ to be." Her eyes started glowing and the silverware started to rattle, so he quickly amended himself. "Actually, it's because human DNA is just more mutable. Like Dittos. Except not _as_ mutable. Er, what I mean is, the structure of human DNA is easier to change because it's inherently…well, weaker than most Pokemon's. I'm an expert at genetics, but I myself am not sure why. All I know is that the stronger Pokemon DNA allows Pokemon to use special powers and manipulate elements, whereas most humans—with the exception of psychics and aura users—cannot. However, the stronger DNA also makes it harder for Pokemon to be changed into creatures other than what they already are, but since human DNA is weaker…"

"It's more susceptible to mutation and change," Sabrina finished. "Okay. That makes sense. However, I think you're still missing the point."

Mewtwo blinked. "What point?"

Sabrina sighed. "Well, first off, have you considered that the kid we adopt might not _want_ to get changed?"

Mewtwo was perplexed. "Not want to? They'd get immortality, amazing good looks, a heightened intellect, and nearly unmatched psychic powers. Why would they possibly not want to become a Mewtwo? You certainly did."

"I'm not most people," Sabrina pointed out. "Although you make a somewhat good argument, other people may be more attached to their humanity than I was."

"Huh," said Mewtwo, having trouble fathoming that concept. While he didn't dislike humans (much) he had trouble understanding why anyone would want to remain as one if they had the option to become something infinitely superior. "Well then, let's just adopt a psychic orphan then. There have to be a few of those around, right? I'm sure they wouldn't mind losing their humanity, what with the ostracizing and bullying they no doubt have to suffer from the rest of the people they live with."

Sabrina frowned at him. "That's over-generalizing, don't you think?"

"Name one human psychic who never had problems with their peers when they were younger, or still doesn't now," Mewtwo said flatly.

"Point," Sabrina grunted, grudgingly admitting that Mewtwo might have something there. After all, her own childhood hadn't been exactly easy, even with a psychic father around to help her learn and restrain her abilities. And that still hadn't gone well, now had it? "I'm still not sure that's a good idea, though. Without the proper guidance and understanding from people who know what it's like, psychic children can grow up to be…somewhat maladjusted."

"And you weren't?" Mewtwo pointed out.

She glared at him. "Even _more_ maladjusted. As in, liking to kill people gruesomely rather than just toying with them."

"Ah." Mewtwo shrugged. "Well, no problem, we're both psychics who understand what it's like to be ostracized by others, we should get along with said hypothetical psychic orphan just fine."

Sabrina sighed in exasperation. "Mewtwo, if they're orphans, that generally means they haven't received _any_ guidance or understanding from their parents at all. You know, what with them being dead and all. Or worse, the parents might be alive, but abandoned the kids due to their powers, which can make the kids even more screwed up. And other times…the parents might be dead _because_ of the psychic child's out-of-control abilities and inexperienced youth. Imagine having to live for even a few years as a child with something like that hanging over your head, and nobody like you around to help ease the burden of being different. That sort of thing can lead to some kids being…very messed up very early on in their lives. The kind of messed up that leads them to hate the whole world and everyone in it, including fellow psychics who, for whatever reason, don't have it quite as bad as they do."

"Ah," said Mewtwo, a bad taste forming in his mouth. "I…see. That does make sense. So…you're saying it would be a bad idea to adopt a psychic child?"

"Not necessarily bad, just…problematic," Sabrina said uneasily. "I know I may be sounding a little callous considering my own childhood, and I'm probably just being paranoid, but…I don't think it would be a good idea to adopt a psychic unless we can be at least somewhat sure in advance that he or she won't snap and try to kill us and/or destroy the world. That sort of thing has happened before to caring couples who mean well by trying to adopt a psychic and give him or her a good home."

Mewtwo raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like being a human psychic sucks…we Psychic Pokemon have it much easier."

"Tell me about it," Sabrina grumbled. "That's one of the reasons I jumped at the chance to become one when Mew offered it to me…."

Mewtwo frowned. "So…what do you suggest we do, then?"

Sabrina sighed. "I'm not saying adoption's the wrong idea, we're just…going to have to think this through carefully. Our real problem is that we need a kid who'd be both willing to sacrifice their humanity to be with us and also mentally and emotionally stable enough to accept us as his or her parents and…and to love us. That's the most important thing, after all, right? I mean, why have a kid if we…if we're not going to love each other?" She hugged herself, and Mewtwo frowned, seeing that this clearly meant a lot to her. He thought for a moment.

"Well," he said finally. "I _suppose_ I could have my supercomputer run a psychic psychological analysis on every child held in a government-run orphanage in the region…and if we don't find anyone who meets our criteria there, we can expand the search parameters to look for orphaned kids who _aren't_ in an institution or expand further to examine every parentless child in the world to find the one that would be perfect for us."

Sabrina's eyes widened in surprise. "It can do that?"

Mewtwo snorted. "Tch. Yeah. I built the thing, after all! Got the idea from some comic book…X-something or other. Anyway, we can use it to see if there are any psychic kids stable enough to be adopted without killing us, and if there's any normal children willing to give up their humanity so that they can be part of a family and know that they're loved...er, because we are going to love them, right?"

Sabrina glared at her husband. "We'd better."

"And of course, if we have trouble finding _any_ children who meet our criteria, we could just adopt the most qualifying ones under false pretenses and then transform and brainwash them without their permission so they'll think that they're our kids and always have been," Mewtwo continued smoothly.

Sabrina stared at him blankly. "…You don't find that the least bit unethical?"

Mewtwo gave her an offended look. "Of course not! Brainwashing solves everything! We'll erase the painful memories of losing their parents (assuming they remember them) and their no-doubt tragic childhood growing up in an uncaring government system which considers them numbers instead of people and give them a new happy life with us!" Sabrina glared at him. Mewtwo huffed and glared right back. "In any event, you're one to talk about ethics, Miss I'm Going to Change Trainers Who Lose to Me or People I Feel Like Tormenting in General Into Dolls so That I Can Play With Them to My Heart's Desire!'

"I got over that," Sabrina said defensively.

"Riiiight," Mewtwo said skeptically. "Then would you care to explain the figurines I discovered in your closet which oddly resemble the mailman and some of our closest (and noisiest) human neighbors who've been suspiciously quiet or absent in recent weeks?"

She fidgeted uneasily. "How do you know those weren't voodoo dolls?" She paused for a moment. Her eyes flashed. "Wait, what were you doing in my closet? Were you peeking into my underwear drawer again?!"

"Of course not!" Mewtwo denied. "I just needed a spoon for an experiment of mine, but you'd told me explicitly that the ones in the kitchen were off-limits, so I…er…_borrowed_ one of yours."

"Borrowed?!" she yelled incredulously. "Without my permission?!"

"I put it back!" Mewtwo said quickly. "And in any event, why do you even _have_ an underwear drawer?! You don't wear clothes, for Arceus' sake! You're a Pokemon now, you don't care about that sort of thing anymore!"

"If that's the case, then why do _you_ have a closet full of tight spandex super-hero outfits in your study?" Sabrina retorted.

Mewtwo paled. "…You saw those?"

Sabrina nodded angrily. "Yes!...Unfortunately." She grimaced. "It probably wouldn't have been so bad if some of them weren't pink…and a couple of them had cups and nipples for the sort of breasts that you don't have…"

An awkward moment passed between the couple. As two of the most powerful psychics in the world, it would have been relatively easy for either of them to peer into their partner's heads and find out exactly why they had certain embarrassing items in their possession. (Okay, maybe not easy, there would have been a feverishly pitched battle as they clashed their minds against each other, but that's irrelevant.) However, as married Pokemon…

They knew by now that, united for life or not, sometimes there were things you really, _really_ didn't want to know about your significant other.

"I won't ask about the dolls if you don't bring up those costumes ever again," Mewtwo said quietly.

"Agreed," Sabrina said just as quietly.

…

With that minor catastrophe behind them, they activated Mewtwo's supercomputer and had it use its psychic 'search engine' to locate all the parentless children in the closest regions who matched Mewtwo and Sabrina's criteria and might not be too adverse to losing their humanity. After a few hours, the machine managed to produce a list of a few hundred individuals, which husband and wife spent the evening poring over and debating over the potential qualifications that each orphan possessed. After a couple of hours and several cups of coffee (some of them actually drunk, rather than flung at one another's heads), one name in particular sprung out to catch Mewtwo's attention. "Max Maple," he read. He frowned, immediately recognizing the name (one of the benefits of an almost flawless memory and an incredibly powerful brain). "Max Maple? He's the son of Norman Maple, the Normal-type Gym Leader of Petalburg City in Hoenn and ex-traveling companion of our mutual acquaintance Ash Ketchum, isn't he?"

Sabrina nodded in agreement. "Yes, that's right. And he has a sister named May who aspires to be a Pokemon coordinator, and while she has acquired many ribbons, she has so far been unable to win any major competition…though there's a chance she might have won the Johto Grand Festival, if her parent's death hadn't forced her to drop out and return home." Mewtwo grunted.

"How did Max Maple become an orphan?" Mewtwo asked. "Last time I checked, his parents were still alive…"

Sabrina gave her husband a surprised look. "Haven't you been paying attention to the news lately?"

Mewtwo fidgeted. "Er, no, I've been spending too much time hanging out with my friends or pwning noobs in MMORPGS…why?"

Sabrina sighed and rolled her eyes. "A couple of weeks ago, Norman and Caroline Maple were killed in a tragic accident, leaving their children homeless and parentless."

Mewtwo blinked. "Oh…er, how?"

"Norman, after much needling from his wife, agreed to wear a hideous bright yellow sweater his wife had bought for him the other day. This proved to be his downfall, however, for when he went to feed his Pokemon, his near-sighted Slaking mistook him for a giant banana due to the color of his sweater and ate him alive," Sabrina said gravely.

Mewtwo struggled to keep a straight face. He knew this was tragic and horrible, but it was difficult not to laugh at such an absurd and embarrassing demise. "And wh-what of Caroline?" he asked, suppressing a giggle and hoping that Sabrina would mistake his stammer for sorrow.

Sabrina closed her eyes sadly. "She saw the Slaking eat her husband through the sides of the clear biodome Norman kept his Pokemon in and ran inside screaming with a shovel with the intention of killing the giant sloth and fishing out her husband before he was totally digested. Unfortunately, she was also wearing a dress she had gotten the other day that happened to be the exact same color as the sweater Norman had worn, and…"

"The Slaking ate her too?" Mewtwo asked, trying as hard as he could not to start laughing. "H-how awful. What…what happened to the Slaking?"

Sabrina frowned. "The Hoenn League and the police attempted to put it down, but lawyers from Pokemon rights activists groups have stepped forward to defend the Slaking and have filed counter-charges against the clothing manufacturers, claiming that they should have taken the color recognition and eating patterns of Pokemon into account before making their products."

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Ahahaha…ahahaha…hoo…heh…hehe," Mewtwo laughed long and loud, pounding the kitchen table repeatedly with his fist and causing the nearby furniture to rattle and shift about due to his psychic emanations of amusement. "Er, sorry," He apologized to his wife when Sabrina started burning a hole in him with his eyes. "Couldn't resist." He coughed and tried to calm himseld down. "Right. So, what happened to May and Max?"

Still glaring at her husband, Sabrina continued her account of the tragic downfall of the Maple family. "Initially Norman's mourning fanclub offered to take the children in out of respect to their idol, but after spending some time with Max and May and realizing they weren't really that much like Norman and wouldn't grow up to be like him (and also refused to entertain some of their sick and disturbing fantasies and cosplaying) the fans dropped them off at an orphanage in a distant city, washed their hands of them, and joined the Wallace and Lance fanclubs since they had nothing better to do with their time."

"I don't blame them, Wallance and Lance are pretty dreamy…and so's that Steven Stone! Oh, and don't get me started on Cynthia…mmm…Cynthia…" Sabrina stared at her husband. Mewtwo blinked. "What? She's awesome, you know that. I've seen the poster you have of her in your private study."

"I've noticed you have one of her too in _your_ private study," Sabrina said flatly.

Mewtwo coughed awkwardly. "Er, right, anyway, so that's the story with Max and May Maple? Fascinating." He glanced back down at the list, re-reading the information his supercomputer had printed out about Max. "Hmm…you know, he has some of the highest qualifiers of any of the other kids we've looked at so far."

"According to that, anyway," Sabrina pointed out. "We'd have to meet him face-to-face and mind-to-mind to be more certain."

"True," Mewtwo agreed. "But I have a good feeling about this one…plus, if we adopt him, we'll agree to take his sister too, since I'm sure they won't really want to be separated. That'll endear them further to us, and we'll get a package deal out of it! Two children for the price of one! What a bargain!"

"That's assuming we adopt him—and his sister—instead of one of the other children," Sabrina reminded her husband. "After all, there's an awful lot of candidates here, and Max isn't the only one with good qualifiers. There's no reason to think that he's the one just because you have a 'good feeling.'"

"How do you know it's not a premonition?" Mewtwo retorted. "We're psychic, we can get those."

"Like the 'premonition' you had which told us we absolutely had to go see that pop star you liked in person or else the world would end?" Sabrina said drily.

"Er…" Mewtwo coughed and glanced back down at the list. "Right, moving on to the next candidate…"

…

After making a second, smaller list of all the best candidates for adoption, Mewtwo and Sabrina went out in the field to meet the orphans in person and decide for themselves which one they would adopt. They started by checking on the psychic children first, since there were fewer of them to interview than the normal kids. They had had Mewtwo's supercomputer scan these psychics a second time after they'd decided which ones to look at, just to make sure they were worth talking to and didn't harbor homicidal urges or any nasty psychoses. They had the highest hopes for these psychic orphans, figuring that they would be able to relate to these children better than the normal kids and feeling that the psychics would be more likely to want to be adopted by Pokemon and changed into another species than most other people would be.

Unfortunately, their hopes were proven false after they actually talked with the psychic kids. They had easily been able to gain entry to the orphanages by wearing human disguises and brainwashing the social workers in charge so they didn't have to bother with any of the bureaucratic red tape which might otherwise have hindered them, but dropped the disguises when chatting with each psychic orphan so that the respective kid would know what he or she was dealing with and would be less suspicious of them than he or she might have been if they had still looked human, since the child would probably have sensed something was wrong with them if they were hidden behind an illusion and been wary of being adopted by them.

Unfortunately, the meetings with the kids did not go as well as expected. While many of the psychic children were not particularly fond of humanity in general and would not mind being turned into something else, most of them still felt rather wary at the concept of being adopted by Pokemon, let alone ones they had never heard of before, thanks to Mewtwo's tendency to erase the memories of any human who actually encountered him. While this did give him and his wife a degree of privacy, it also had the inconvenient effect of making him a virtually unknown and somewhat worrisome Pokemon, since nobody knew what to expect from him or Sabrina, whereas pretty much everyone knew what might happen if you ran into one of the well-known legendary Pokemon such as Mew or Ho-Oh or even Darkrai.

Additionally, most of the kids who did want to become something else were more interested in becoming something cute like an Espeon or impressively intelligent like an Alakazam or beautiful and graceful like a Gardevoir or Gallade. Some even wanted to be Jynx, for the boobs and hair if for nothing else. When an annoyed Mewtwo asked if he and Sabrina weren't beautiful or graceful or intelligent, most of the kids reluctantly admitted they didn't think so…and one was rude enough to say to his face that he thought Mewtwo was the ugliest Pokemon he had ever seen. That caused poor self-conscious Mewtwo to burst into tears and hide in a bathroom blubbering in a locked stall for several minutes until he managed to regain his composure, much to Sabrina's embarrassment.

Admittedly, only a few of the orphans were as bad as that…but it was the final one who really took the cake and cemented Mewtwo and Sabrina's decision not to adopt a psychic child; or at least, not yet.

His name was Anthony Fremont, of the Peaksville orphanage, a disturbingly pleasant place where everyone was smiling…perhaps a little too forcedly. Anthony seemed somewhat normal (for a psychic), other than an odd shadow and a bright wet purple gaze which creeped Mewtwo out. "Hello, Anthony," Sabrina said, offering the three-year old boy sitting across the table from them in one of the Peaksville orphanage's interview rooms what she thought to be a warm, welcoming smile, but pretty much everyone else would describe as the malevolent grin a witch might have before she cut you up and put her in her stew. "My name is Sabrina, and this is my husband Mewtwo. We're looking for a child to adopt into our family. Would you like to be a part of our family?"

"I don't like you," Anthony said abruptly.

Sabrina blinked. Mewtwo fidgeted, his psychic senses tingling like crazy and generally giving him the impression that coming here had been a very bad idea. "Well," Sabrina said slowly. "I'm sorry you feel that way, but-"

"Things I don't like go to the cornfield," Anthony continued.

"Huh?" said Sabrina.

And then she and Mewtwo were no longer in the orphanage but standing in the middle of a vast cornfield stretching out to the horizon in every direction. "Huh," said Sabrina, rather surprised. "Well, guess we won't be adopting him, then. How'd he get through your computer's screening?" Her husband didn't reply. "Mewtwo?" She turned around and saw her mate was gasping for breath and scratching all over his body as angry red welts formed on his skin. She gasped. "Mewtwo?!"

"That horrible…ugh…brat! I'm allergic to corn!" Mewtwo cried, wheezing as he frantically scratched himself. "It's my greatest weakness, other than Dark-type attacks!"

Sabrina stared at him blankly. "You're allergic to corn?"

"Unfh…yes!" he cried, trying desperately to quench the burning itch spreading all over his body. "Yes, I am!"

"How can you be allergic to corn?!" she asked incredulously.

"The same way most people are allergic to things, I was born with it!" he snapped as he continued scratching. "And I've been unable to remove it from my DNA, it's a very stubborn allele!"

Sabrina put her hands on her hips, getting annoyed. "Why didn't you tell me you were allergic to corn?"

He shot her an exasperated look as his hands and tail roamed all over his body. "Weren't you listening, woman? It's my greatest weakness! If my enemies, or worse, my friends, knew about it, it'd be all over for me! Giovanni would dispatch an army of Rocket agents with popcorn guns to capture me, and they'd pelt me with kernels until I was so covered in hives that I would be unable to stop them from capturing or killing me! And ugh, just imagine all the pranks Darkrai would pull…"

"Good point," murmured Sabrina, lost in thought at all the pranks she could pull on her husband whenever he pissed her off too much. "I suppose this explains why you always eat nachos instead of popcorn when we watch movies."

"That, and I really like nachos," Mewtwo admitted. "Now, could you help me out here? I think I have some cream back home that should reduce the swelling…"

"All right," said Sabrina. She paused and looked around at the seemingly endless cornfield surrounding them. "Now…which way is home again?"

....

After they teleported out of the infinite cornfield (and vigorously applied cream and ointment to Mewtwo's body to get rid of his hives) Mewtwo and Sabrina got back into disguise and started hitting the orphanages where the normal kids on their list resided. They knew this would take a bit longer, since there were more normal orphans than psychic ones, but since they had pretty much ruled out all the psychics on the list, regular children were all they had left to go on.

The children they interviewed over the next few days were varied and diverse in ethnicity, behavior, personality, and even mental stability. Some children were good, others were okay, and others still were downright awful. Each was offered a series of 'purely hypothetical' questions to gauge just how much they might like being a powerful and immortal psychic Pokemon, living in a family of said immortal psychic Pokemon, whether they had any interest in ruling the world (or not ruling it) or any nasty intentions towards the people who might have been cruel to them during their time at the orphanage, whether or not they would like to have any siblings, how they felt about their biological parents, etc., etc. Naturally, the dozens of orphans the couple interviewed gave all sorts of different responses to these questions. Some said they'd love to be an immortal psychic Pokemon, others said they'd rather be a ghost or an alien or a dinosaur or something. Some said they thought the world could probable be a little better but weren't interested in conquering it, while some (not always jokingly) said they'd love to establish a global totalitarian empire in which they would punish everyone who had ever wronged them and rule over everyone with an iron fist. While such sentiments might have appealed at one point to the couple, they were long past the 'world domination phase' of their lives. (Well, Sabrina was…Mewtwo still rather obsessively played world-building sim games on his computer in which he could dictate every facet of the lives of his creations.)

In any event, some of the orphans gave satisfactory answers, and others did not. Some charmed the couple, and others did not. However, no matter how much they liked some kids or disliked others, they found themselves unable to find the one that seemed just right…

Until they came to Max Maple.

…

Anyone marginally familiar with Max would think he looked pretty much the same he always did. Dark blue hair, big glasses that sometimes had trouble staying on his nose, big intelligent eyes…it was only someone who was especially perceptive or more intimately familiar with him would have noticed the little things that signified he wasn't taking the death of his parents very well: the messiness of his hair. Tape wrapped around the bridge of his glasses and some scratches here and there on the lenses. The way his hands clenched and unclenched tightly out of reflex. The shadows under his eyes that made it look as if he had seen far more than any boy his age should.

He was currently staring suspiciously through those scratched glasses with his shadowed eyes at the young couple sitting on the other side of the table in the orphanage's interview room. One of them was the familiar and rather infamous figure of Sabrina of Saffron. She was clad in her usual tight red outfit which complemented her form, and her long green hair was looking as well-kept and lustrous as it usually was. Max knew that at one point she had been Leader of the Saffron City Gym, until she dropped out of the public eye without warning and left her father in charge of the gym and the training of her psychic disciples. It was rumored that she had left to marry someone her family disapproved of.

If the man sitting next to her was that someone, Max could understand why Sabrina's family might have rejected their union, for his fashion sense if for no other reason. He was wearing a blue Hawaiian T-shirt with yellow flowers patterned on it, a pair of multicolored cargo pants with far too many pockets, chains, and zippers for anyone's own good, soft brown leather loafers, a rather loud and colorful necktie, and a porkpie hat. The clashing colors made a rather unpleasant contrast to his absurdly pale skin and white hair, making Max slightly nauseous when he looked at him. The man's rather intense purple eyes didn't help…

And why the heck did he have a pipe stuck in his mouth? He wasn't even smoking it… "What did you say your name was again?" Max asked the man with the pipe and the weird clothes.

"Cornelius von Higglesworth du Mari le Helsing de la Porpington sig Klaatua ek Chaosti ti nos de Two," the man said. Max stared. Sabrina smacked him. "But you can call me Joe," the man said quickly.

"Right…" Max said slowly. "And…you guys are married…and are looking to adopt, and were thinking you wanted me for a kid or something like that?"

Sabrina nodded. "That's essentially it, yes." She gave Max the same 'warm' smile she had used before, which only succeeded in extremely creeping him out. "For reasons I don't really want to go into, we…can't have children of our own. So we're looking for a son or a daughter we can take in whom we can love and raise as our own."

"And you think that kid might be me," Max inferred.

"Possibly," Sabrina admitted. "We would like to get to know you better first, but…yes, there's a chance."

"More than a chance," 'Joe' said with a smirk. "More like destiny." Sabrina smacked him again. "Ow…"

Max raised an eyebrow. "Okay…uh, not to be rude, but…is this some kind of publicity stunt? Former gym leader adopts the kid of a dead gym leader? I'm pretty sure that would make the headlines and make up for whatever it is made you drop out of the limelight in the first place."

Sabrina actually looked offended at this. So did 'Joe'. "Max, I can assure you, this has nothing to do with publicity. We don't intend to make a big media showcase out of this if we don't want to, which we don't. All we want is to have a child of our own to love and care for. That's not unreasonable, is it?"

"Yeah, and were you insinuating that there was something wrong with her marrying me?" Joe snarled, leaning over the table and getting in Max's face. "Huh? Huh? Is there? Huh?" Sabrina grabbed him by his necktie and pulled him back from Max hard enough to constrict his throat. "Gack…what was I thinking when I put this thing on? Goddamn noose…" he gasped.

Max frowned, still wary. "So this isn't for publicity, becoming the parents of a Gym Leader's son? And it's not out of pity or anything due to how my parents' deaths were publicized and run on the news hundreds of times and shoved in people's faces day after day?"

"We are very sorry for the grisly way they died, and how traumatic it must have been for you to lose your parents that way…" Sabrina paused to smack Joe, who was trying to restrain himself from giggling. "But if we were to adopt you, it would be on your own merit, not because we felt sorry for you."

Max seemed to relax a little. "Really? Good, because you wouldn't believe how many people came in here trying to make me part of their family so they could get some media attention or because they felt sorry for me or something. It was a lot like how m-my dad's fanclub took us up at first, then abandoned us when they lost interest." He ground his teeth and dug his fingernails into the table angrily. "Those heartless assholes…it really hurt my sister badly when they just dumped us off at the orphanage and drove off as fast as they could, like we were some garbage they were happy to get rid of or something."

Joe's face hardened, his eyes glimmering dangerously…but not at Max. "It's an awful thing…to be rejected."

"Yes," Sabrina agreed, a rather eerie coldness forming in her eyes. Max felt a chill go down his spine, and felt glad that coldness was no being directed at him. "A most terrible thing indeed."

"Max, if something were to…happen to those people who abandoned you…how would you feel?" Joe asked suddenly.

Max blinked, surprised and more than a little worried by the question. "Uh, how would I feel? Define 'something'."

"Oh, you know…death, pain, dismemberment, etc.," Joe said casually. Sabrina frowned at him.

"…I dunno," Max said carefully, uncertain whether or not people's lives hinged on what he was about to say. "I mean, I'm angry at them for dumping us, but I don't, you know, want them to die or anything like that…"

"Oh, good!" Joe said happily. "Because it wasn't as if we were offering to kill them or anything. No sir, not at all." Sabrina smacked him. "Ow! What?!"

"What about the Slaking who ate your parents?" Sabrina asked while Joe rubbed his arm and grumbled under his breath. "Do you hate him for killing them? Do you want him to suffer for it?"

Max frowned. "I'm not exactly forgiving him for what he did, and I think this whole lawsuit against the clothing manufacturer is stupid, and I'm not going to go so far as to blame my Mom for making Dad wear that hideous sweater…but that Slaking's always had eye problems, so…I guess it was more of an accident than an intentional killing, so it's not entirely his fault. Though you'd think he'd have noticed something weird about giant bananas that screamed and bled…"

Joe shrugged. "Well, nobody ever said Slaking were especially intelligent."

Max snorted. "Tell me about it…I've never understood what Dad saw in them…" He hesitated, a pained expression on his face. "If…if he had raised other Pokemon, he might have…" He didn't complete that sentence. He didn't need to.

"Max, if someone were to offer you the chance to become a Pokemon, would you?" Sabrina asked, shrewdly changing the subject. "Totally hypothetical question, but we're just wondering."

Max frowned. "A Pokemon? What kind of Pokemon?"

"Well, not to be specific or anything, but…maybe an immortal uber-powerful Psychic Pokemon?" Joe suggested not-so-subtly.

"Which one?" Max asked. "Aren't there like a bunch of those?"

There was a pause. "There are, aren't there?" Sabrina admitted. "I wonder why that is?" Joe shrugged.

Max sighed in thought. "Huh. Well…yeah, I guess I wouldn't mind being a Pokemon. Wait, are we talking about a short-term or long-term change here?"

"Uhh…" Joe looked uneasily at Sabrina.

"Which one would you prefer?" she asked patiently.

Max shrugged. "Well, before my parents…before you-know-what happened, I probably would've wanted a short change. You know, so I'd become a kid again. But…but now that they're dead…there's nothing really left for me as a human anymore." He paused. "Well, there's May, but…hey, would she be getting in on this too?"

"Yes," said Joe.

"Definitely," Sabrina agreed.

"I mean, if you want her to, that is," Joe said.

"Good, because I don't think she'd be able to stand it if I just walked out on her…then again, I'm pretty sure we'd be split up if we were adopted anyway and grow up with separate families and maybe never see each other again." Max sighed and looked down at the table. "That'd suck…she took Mom and Dad dying so badly. I don't know how she'd handle the two of us being separated forever. We're all each other has left." He glanced up in time to catch Joe sniffing and wiping away what looked suspiciously like a tear. "So, yeah, if, in this purely hypothetical situation, I was being given the opportunity to become an uber-powerful immortal Psychic Pokemon forever, I guess I'd take it…so long as I knew for sure May'd get the same deal. I wouldn't want to leave her behind." He frowned. "Though it'd help if I knew which Pokemon we were talking about me getting turned into…"

"Why? It's a purely hypothetical situation," Sabrina said with a straight face.

"Riiiiiight," Max said, clearly not believing her. Joe (or rather Mewtwo) was somewhat impressed. The boy seemed to be catching on pretty quickly that there might be more going on here than met the eye.

"Why would you like to become a Pokemon, Max? Other than because there's nothing about being human which benefits you anymore," Sabrina added quickly.

Max thought for a bit. "Because maybe if I was a Pokemon…the nightmares would stop."

Joe and Sabrina exchanged glances. "Nightmares?"

Max nodded. "Yeah. You see…this wasn't in the papers, I didn't tell anyone, but…I saw it happen. My parents getting eaten, I mean. I was in the biodome, watching Dad take care of his Pokemon even though I was supposed to be doing my homework, and I saw…it. I saw his hungry and not-too-bright Slaking eat him, and then Mom after her. I…I should have said something, should have yelled to warn them, but…I was too scared. I was paralyzed by fear. I couldn't do anything but sit there and watch as my parents were devoured right in front of me, while I did nothing to stop it." He squeezed his eyes shut angrily. "Rationally, I know it wasn't my fault that they died, that there's nothing I could've done to save them, but…some part of me blames myself for what happened. And every night since then I've had horrible graphic nightmares of Mom and Dad being chewed up and digested then vomited back up and eaten again and again and again…and every time they go down the Slaking's throat, they yell at me. They blame me for their deaths. They…they hate me for it." He took off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes until they were red, trying to hide his tears. "I don't want to forget my parents. Not really. But…but maybe if I were something else…these visions would stop. They'd stop blaming me for letting them die. I'd finally be at peace."

Joe sobbed and blew his nose into a handkerchief, making a noise like a Donphan clearing its trunk. Sabrina stared at Max for a moment, as if she were peering deep inside his head. And since she was psychic, who's to say she wasn't? "Max," she said after a moment. "If we could make those visions stop…if we could bring your suffering to an end…and if we could provide a home for both you and your sister, would you let us adopt you?"

Max looked at her in surprise. "You…you could do that? You could make the nightmares go away?"

Joe nodded. "Yeah," he said. "I know a guy who…ah…specializes in stuff like that. And we're pretty good at that sort of thing too."

Max hesitated. "That…that would be great…especially if you kept me and May together…but…"

"You're wondering if letting us be your new parents would betray your memory of your real Mom and Dad," Sabrina finished.

Max nodded. "Yeah, that."

Sabrina extended her arm and gently laid a hand over Max's. "Max, I promise you that your parents would be happier if you moved on with your life instead of wallowing in sadness and the past. They would want you and your sister to find a home where the two of you would be loved and you could let go of the pain that's holding you back."

Max stared at her for a moment. "You think so?"

Joe nodded. "Absolutely! And if you still doubt that, we know another guy who can find out…yeah…he's good at that sort of thing too."

Max stared at the couple for a moment, his eyes watering. He swallowed and tightened his shoulders, strengthening his resolve. "If…if you guys could do that…if you could give me and May a home and love us and make the nightmares go away…then…then I'd be happy to be a part of your family." He smiled, not stopping the tears from running down his cheeks this time.

Sabrina smiled and leaned over the table to hug Max. "Welcome to the family, son."

"Yeah," Joe said, trying to find an angle to lean in so he could get in on the hug too. "What she said."

Sabrina let go of Max and stood up. "Now, if you'll excuse Joe and I for a moment, we need to go talk to the orphanage administrators about adopting you and get all the paperwork done-"

"*cough*brainwashthem*cough*" Joe coughed loudly, causing Sabrina to give him an annoyed look.

"And then we just need to pick up your sister and fill out the paperwork for adopting her-" She shot Mewtwo a quick glance just before he was about to cough again. "And then we can take you both home."

"That…that would be great," Max sniffed. He paused. "Uh…where is home, by the way? Saffron City?"

"No, just a hole in the ground. Literally," Joe said. Max and Sabrina stared at him. "What? It is! A very nice hole, yeah, but it's, well, a cave."

Max frowned, starting to get suspicious again. "Why do you live in a cave?"

"We respect our privacy," Sabrina said.

"And there's more room for me to perform my dangerous experiments," Joe said.

Max's eyes widened. "Experiments? Cool! Can I help?"

Joe smiled sinisterly. "Help? Oh yes, Max, you can help…more than you possibly imagine! Mwahahaha…muhahahahaha…bwahahahahaha!" Sabrina and Max stared at him. Joe flushed in embarrassment. "Er, sorry. Force of habit."

…

A few hours later…

"And here we are! Home sweet home!" Joe said, spreading his arms out dramatically.

Max and May glanced around. All they could see was a grassy hillock rising from a medium-sized meadow at the base of a small mountain surrounded by a variety of trees. Random clumps of wildflowers popped up here and there, dotting the green countryside with bright colors. Other than a boulder and a rather conspicuously placed mailbox on the top of the hillock, there was nothing that looked like a home anywhere to be found.

After picking up May from the older kids' ward of the orphanage and filling out the paperwork to adopt her and Max (re: brainwashing the social workers into letting them go) Sabrina and Joe had teleported their new family to this rather remote location in the middle of nowhere which was, apparently, their new home. So far, May was not impressed.

"Is our house invisible?" Max asked dubiously.

May glared at her little brother, huffed, and put her hands on her hips. "Great going, Max, you got us adopted by a couple of homeless wackjobs!"

"Hey!" Joe snapped. "We are not homeless!"

Sabrina nodded. "Yes, our home's right over here." She gestured, and suddenly the boulder raised up on a concealed hinge, revealing a stairway going down into the depths of the earth.

May gawked. "How did she-"

"Psychic, remember?" Max pointed out. "They can do that sort of thing."

May flushed. "Oh…right. I'm just not used to seeing humans do things like that."

"Human…right…" Sabrina said, her eyes glancing about shiftily.

Joe opened the mailbox, peered in, and scowled as he pulled out a thick handful of envelopes. "Bah, nothing but junk, same as usual," he grumbled. "Bill, bill, bill, bill, credit card offer, bill, bill, subscription to some crappy magazine about Pokemon beautifying tips (ugh), bill, bill, we may have won a million Pokedollars (yeah, right), bill…" He tossed each offending letter over his shoulder as he rejected it. Much to Max and May's amazement, the bills combusted and turned to dust the instant Joe threw them away. "Ooh, my newest issue of Genetics Monthly! Score! Oh, and a letter to you from your father." He offered the letter to his wife.

Sabrina stared at the message, still in the envelope, and shook her head after a moment. "He's just complaining about our marriage as usual; begging me to come back to my senses and return home. Nothing new." Her eyes flashed, and the letter burst into flame.

"If he's against our union so badly, you'd think he'd come over here and say it to our faces," Joe grumbled, shaking the ashes that had been Sabrina's father's letter from his hand. "Or at least send a telepathic message. Or an e-mail. What's the point of sending a letter these days?"

"Is he psychic too?" a startled May whispered to Max.

"Uh, I think so," said Max, just as surprised.

"Why exactly did they want to adopt a couple of normal children like us if they're both clearly very powerful psychics?" May asked him. "I mean, I somehow doubt we'd fit into their household without any serious mental abilities…"

"I…never really thought to ask that," Max said sheepishly, sweatdropping. "They seemed on the level at the time."

May growled at him angrily. "Great, not only did you get both of us stuck with a couple of weirdoes without even asking me my opinion on the matter first, now we're both probably going to become some sick experiment to them! They'll completely wipe our minds and turn us into obedient zombie slaves or something!"

"We can hear you, you know," Sabrina said deadpan.

May jumped. "Ack! They read my mind!"

"Actually, no, we're just…you know, only a few feet away?" Joe said, tapping one ear. "And you weren't exactly whispering very quietly."

May sweatdropped and laughed nervously, her face turning red. "Eheh, oops! Uh, you guys know I didn't really mean that, right?"

Max rolled his eyes. "And you were saying I wasn't thinking things through when I got us into this?"

May sulked at him. Like Max, anyone intimately familiar with her would be able to see she hadn't taken her parent's deaths well either. Her eyes were hollow, downcast, and shadowed, and her bangs were no longer combed in their unique part and now just looked somewhat messy, as if she either no longer had time or interest in keeping herself well-groomed. Her usual red outfit had been discarded for a much darker and somber dress, as if she were in mourning (well, I suppose she was) and she had stopped wearing her bandana as well, for whatever reason. She gave off an overall feeling of negativity and despair, which reminded Sabrina of her own teenage years. (She was grateful she had gotten over the 'goth' thing, but still thought she looked pretty good in black. So did Mewtwo. Then again, he thought she looked good in everything except plaid.) "So," she said, changing the subject. "We live underground?"

"Pretty much, yes," said Joe. "It may seem odd at first, but you'd be surprised by how many other people do it. We've got just about everything down there…a hydroponics bay to grow our own food, taps into an underground river for water, cable, wireless Internet, a fully-stocked kitchen and several laboratories, some cool ungerground grottoes and forests where wild Pokemon live in a semi-natural habitat crafted and observed by yours truly, and miles and miles of tunnels and passageways forming a subterranean labyrinth in which you might very well get lost forever and never see the light of day again."

As Max and May gave him horrified looks, Sabrina forced a smile on her face and hit Joe hard. "Please ignore my husband and your new father, he can be a bit of an idiot sometimes." _What are you doing? Are you trying to scare them?!_ She hissed telepathically.

Joe pouted at her while rubbing where she had hit him. _What? Raikou got lost in our cave during my bachelor party, remember? It took us weeks to find him, and by the time we did he'd completely lost his mind and gotten himself adopted by a family of Golbat and somehow learned how to hang upside-down from the ceiling and find his way in the dark using echolocation._

_Raikou's an idiot_, she reminded her husband flatly.

_Ah. Good point_, he admitted.

"Why do you guys live in a system of caverns underground?" Max asked.

"We like our privacy," said Sabrina.

"Then why do you have a mailbox?" asked May.

He frowned at her. "How else are we supposed to get our mail?" May blinked, unable to think of a rational answer to that question, try as she did.

"Now, if you'll just follow us down into the dark deep underground where there are no interfering witnesses, we can get you two settled in," Sabrina said kindly.

Max and May sweatdropped. "Right," Max said.

"You first," said May.

The couple glanced at each other and shrugged. "Okay," said Joe.

They headed down the stairs. May tried to make a break for it when their backs were turned, but Max grabbed her by the arm and dragged her, protesting, towards the tunnel entrance. Once all four of them had started down the stairs, the boulder swung shut above them, sealing them in. May whimpered when she heard the entrance close, but Max ignored that, too, and kept pulling her down the stairs.

After a while, they reached the bottom of the stairs and came into an entry hall which seemed warm and cozy and well-lit and quite a bit like what entry halls in most houses were like, save for the fact that it was underground and the walls, ceiling and floor were made of stone and dirt. Joe removed his porkpie hat and placed it on a nearby hatrack, where it shared space with a dozen or so other hats of all shapes and sizes (some even more outrageous than the chapeau he had just taken off), removed a flower from a nearby vase on a cabinet, and handed it to Sabrina. "For you, my lady."

"Why thank you," Sabrina said sweetly. "It's the exact same flower that I grew last week which you then uprooted and put in that vase to give to me as a gift. How very thoughtful of you."

"It's a symbolic gesture, woman!" Joe snapped. He huffed, crossed his arms and turned away. "See if I ever get her a present again…"

Max and May stared. Sabrina coughed and turned her attention back to them. "Right. Kids. Now that we're home, I think it's time you learned something. You see…we haven't been entirely honest about who we are or why we adopted you."

"Figures," Max grunted.

"Oh no! Now they're going to mutilate and kill us and do horrible experiments with our dead bodies, like in the movies!" May screamed. "This is all your fault, Max!"

Sabrina and Joe sweatdropped. "Uh, actually, we were talking about…well, this." They let the illusions of their disguises drop, revealing themselves as a pair of Mewtwo.

May screamed. Max's eyes widened in amazement. "Wow, cool, two Mewtwos!"

Mewtwo started while May screamed. "Wait, you know what we are?!"

Max nodded as May screamed. "Yeah, I think Ash told us about you…though he said there was only one of you. And then we ran into this crazy Jung guy in Kanto who thought he could rule the world by creating an artificial Mirage Mewtwo with the powers of every Pokemon in existence, but it got destroyed by an artificial Mirage Mew."

Mewtwo blinked as May screamed. "Mirage Mewtwo?! Mirage Mew?! What the…how the hell did I not know about this?! Did you know?" he asked Sabrina.

She shook her head as May screamed, looking just as surprised. "I've never heard anything about that until now. How could this Jung have known anything about you? I thought you were careful to wipe the minds of anyone who accidentally saw you."

"Well, he used information from Professor Oak's Pokemon database to create it," Max said helpfully while May screamed.

Mewtwo frowned. "That doesn't explain how Oak learned about me, though…and will somebody shut her up already?! I'm getting a headache…" Sabrina gestured, and suddenly May's voice cut off. She blinked, grabbed her throat, and tried saying something. No words came out of her mouth. She started screaming again, but silently. Mewtwo sighed in relief. "Ah…much better."

"Was that necessary?" asked an uncertain Max.

"Yes," said Sabrina.

"Oh, okay then," said Max, leaving it at that. May glared at him. "So, uh...you were saying something about why you disguised yourself as humans and adopted us?"

"Yes," said Mewtwo. "You see, the thing is…"

He and Sabrina spent the next few minutes explaining the situation to Max. "I see," said Max. "So you adopted us with the intention of turning us into Mewtwos like yourself?"

"Yes," said Sabrina. "But not without your permission, of course."

"Well-" started Mewtwo.

She glared at him. "NOT WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION, OF COURSE."

Mewtwo grimaced. "Right. What she said."

"Neat!" said Max. "So the hypothetical question you were talking about earlier wasn't a hypothetical question after all!"

"Well, duh," said Mewtwo.

Max frowned. "Well, I don't really think I have a problem with getting turned into a Mewtwo, but…you guys said you'd get rid of my nightmares. You weren't lying, right?"

"Nope, we can certainly do that," said Sabrina.

"Cool! This is gonna be awesome!" Max cheered. May started jumping up and down and yelling at the top of her lungs, which of course wasn't very loud at all.

"I think your sister wants to say something," said Sabrina.

Mewtwo rolled his eyes. "Fine, but if she starts screaming I'm going to mute her again."

Sabrina gestured, and May had a voice again. "-No! Absolutely not, no way! I don't want to be adopted into a family of scary mutant Pokemon, and I definitely don't want to become one of them!"

"Why not?" Mewtwo asked, somewhat offended. "What's wrong with being an immortal uber-powerful and devilishly handsome Psychic Pokemon?"

"I like being human!" May protested. "I don't want to be a Pokemon, then I won't be able to train or do coordinating or date Drew or do any of the things humans can do that Pokemon can't!"

"Pokemon can do all those things…" Mewtwo grumbled. "Or they should, anyway. Stupid oppressive human-made laws…if I were still into ruling the world, I'd do something about that…hmm, maybe I should do something anyway."

"You can do all of that as a Mewtwo," Sabrina said. "Though you'd probably have to wear a disguise. We could teach you how to make one."

"And I'd think you'd be better at coordinating, since you can use your psychic powers to be more in sync with your Pokemon...or to read the minds of your opponents and come up with good counter-moves…or to control the judges' minds so that they'll announce you the winner…stuff like that," Mewtwo said. "Though why you'd possibly want to waste your considerable power as a Mewtwo doing something as silly and frivolous as Pokemon Coordinating, I certainly don't know."

"It is not silly and frivolous! It's a perfectly respectable occupation accepted in just about every region" May snapped. "And all of that stuff you were talking about is cheating!"

Mewtwo shrugged. "So?"

"It's not like the people you've fought against have never cheated, May," Max pointed out. "Like Harley and Team Rocket."

"Just because they cheated doesn't mean I should, too!" she retorted. "That makes me better than they are!"

Max rolled his eyes. "Right, and yet you've never won a single Grand Festival…"

"Lots of people who've never cheated haven't won a Grand Festival!" May protested, though her face was turning rather red. "Though I wish I could…at least once…"

"Yeah, I bet Ash could too," Mewtwo said. Everyone looked at him. "What? I like him, but I don't think he's ever going to win a single Pokemon League either. Not for a few more years, anyway."

"What about the Orange Island League and the Battle Frontier challenge?" Sabrina asked.

Mewtwo snorted and waved a hand airily. "Psh, who counts those? And it's not like he was even competing against other trainers except for the Gym Leaders or Frontier Brains in either of those challenges; and they're supposed to lose to strong, promising young trainers like Ash, otherwise nobody would make it through the Leagues at all. After all, they were made Gym Leaders for a reason. And winning a League isn't a real measure of your skills as a trainer unless you've fought against other trainers who've done the same things you have, if not more, in a big championship tournament to earn the right to call yourself Champion and stronger than all the others who've made it as far as you have…though it also means everyone else loses, which is pretty selfish, now that I think about it. Same with Pokemon coordinating, except there you dress up and have your Pokemon prance around like sissies."

"And those videogame tournaments you participate in aren't selfish?" Sabrina asked cattily. "And I've seen some of the outfits you wear to those things…some are even more outlandish than the costumes coordinators wear."

Mewtwo flushed. "Oh, never mind...and the things I wear to videogame tournaments don't count, I'm cosplaying as a famous anime or movie or videogame character, it's not the same thing!"

Sabrina rolled her eyes. "Sure it's not." Mewtwo huffed and turned away from her.

"Uh, guys? Weren't we in the middle of something?" Max prompted his new 'parents'.

"Hmm? Oh, right," said Mewtwo. "Something about May being able to still do her coordinating thing as a Mewtwo."

"But I don't want to be a Mewtwo!" May yelled, stamping her foot angrily. "I like being human! And aside from that, it's not natural!"

A tense silence filled the room. Sabrina's eyes started glowing ominously as the temperature dropped five degrees. "Not natural?" she hissed. "Not natural?! I used to be a human too, you know, and Mew transformed me into what I am now. Does that make it not natural?!"

"Uh, n-no, that's not what…I mean…uh," May stammered, realizing she had grievously misspoken.

The loose furniture in the room started rattling, and the lights dimmed. Mewtwo surreptitiously stepped away from his wife, and Max backed away from his sister. "Oh, I understand, it's perfectly all right for a psychic human like me to allow myself to get changed into a Pokemon, but when a totally normal and average girl like yourself is given the opportunity to transcend humanity, it's wrong and unnatural?!"

"I-I wasn't thinking! I didn't mean it! I'm sorry!" May sobbed, fearing for her life.

"Good," said Sabrina, abruptly calming down. Everything returned to normal. Mewtwo and Max sighed in relief. "In the future, you should try to think more before you talk. You'll hurt fewer feelings and put your life at much less of a risk than you are now."

"Okay," May whimpered, trembling a little. "But…I still don't want to be a Pokemon!"

"Aw, why not, May? It'll be fun!" Max said.

May glared at her brother. "Max, you're sacrificing your humanity and destroying Mom and Dad's memory by going along with this! They wouldn't have wanted you to give up everything you are and forget all about them to join some new family only a few weeks after they died!"

"It's because of their memory that I'm doing this!" Max snapped. "They wouldn't have wanted me to spend the rest of my natural life being miserable because of the memories of seeing them die horribly! They'd want me to move on, and that's exactly what I'm trying to do! And if it means being adopted into a strange new family and becoming a completely different species, then so be it, it's the choice I've made! I brought you into this because I was hoping you could move on too, but if it's not what you want, then…then…" He shook for a moment, filled with conflicting emotions. "Then you can…you can leave. The exit's over there. You can go and do whatever you want with your life…but I'm staying here, with my new parents, and my new life."

May gaped. "You'd…you'd shove me out the door?! Your own sister?!"

Max squeezed his eyes shut, fighting back tears. "I brought you here because you're my sister, and I wanted you to stay my sister…but if you don't want to be a part of our new family, then…then that's your decision to make. But if you don't want to stay, then…you won't be my sister anymore. I'm sorry, May." He turned his back to her, shoulders shaking.

"Ooh, nice emotional blackmail," Mewtwo whispered approvingly. Sabrina smacked him. "Ow!"

May bit her lip. Her eyes started watering, and she clenched her fists to try and control herself. She turned towards Mewtwo and Sabrina. "If…if I became a Mewtwo and found I didn't like it…would…would you be able to turn me back?"

Mewtwo blinked. "Hmm? Oh, yes. Definitely. No problem."

_Can you?_ Sabrina asked him telepathically.

_No, but I'm not going to tell her that. If worst comes to worst, I'll brainwash her into thinking she likes it_, Mewtwo replied.

Sabrina rolled her eyes. _Why is it always brainwashing with you?_

_Brainwashing makes everything better!_ Mewtwo insisted.

May swallowed. "Then…then I'll do it. I'll become a Mewtwo…and part of your family."

Max turned around and hugged his sister. "Oh, May!"

"Oh, Max!" May sobbed, hugging her brother.

"Oh, I need a tissue," Mewtwo said, wiping his eyes.

Sabrina rolled her eyes. "You always get so emotional…"

"It's not wrong to cry at a beautiful moment, woman!" He yelled at her. "I have a heart, you know!"

"Not according to your Pokedex entry," she retorted.

He scowled. "I should kill whoever wrote that…" he growled.

…

A little while later, in Mewtwo's laboratory…

"Why am I naked?!" May cried from inside a translucent tube, one arm wrapped around her chest and the other…*ahem* down there.

"You're supposed to be, the DNA infusion process doesn't work as well if every inch of your skin isn't exposed to it," Mewtwo replied without looking up from a very complex computer console on the other side of the room as he input an incredibly complicated sequence into his machines.

"Couldn't you at least have some sort of metal bands at the level of my private parts or fill the interior of the tube with mist or some semi-opaque but breathable liquid that would conceal me from anyone looking?!" May pleaded desperately.

"No," said Mewtwo.

Max rolled his eyes from inside the tube next to May, also naked. "Relax, May, it's not like you have anything anyone would want to look at, anyway."

"MAX!"

"Don't worry, I'm a Pokemon so I don't find your human form even remotely sexually appealing," Mewtwo said to May. "Plus, you're way too young for me."

"And married," Sabrina reminded her husband.

"Right, that too."

"Oh," May said, unsure whether to feel relieved or insulted.

Mewtwo pressed a few more buttons, and a light purple gas began seeping into the tubes. May started panicking, but the genetic Pokemon quickly reassured her. "Don't worry, that stuff's nothing to be afraid of, it's just mist laden with Mewtwo genomes. It'll soak into your skin and lungs and bond with your human DNA, altering your genetic structure and turning you into creatures like us."

"Oh," May said faintly.

"Will it hurt?" Max asked anxiously, squinting up at the gas (since, being naked, he obviously didn't have his glasses).

"The gas? No." Mewtwo flicked a switch, and suddenly several dozen very nasty-looking devices that looked like laser cannons popped out of hatches on the walls and floor on the ends of hinging robot arms. "The high doses of radiation necessary to activate the DNA bonding, on the other hand..."

Max's eyes bulged out of their sockets. "Oh crap."

"LET ME OUT!" May shrieked, banging her fists on the side of the tube. "LET ME OUT RIGHT NOW! I'VE CHANGED MY MIND, I DON'T WANT TO BE A MEWTWO AFTER ALL!"

"Oh, relax," Mewtwo said dismissively. "It won't hurt…much. For very long. And don't worry, if by some horrible accident the process doesn't work right, you'll make plenty of new friends with the other rejects in the Failed Experiments Vault."

Max's eyes widened. "Other rejects?!"

"IF I DIE, MY POKEMON WILL KILL YOU!" May screamed.

"Yeah, somehow I doubt that," Mewtwo said, pressing some more buttons on his console and causing the radiation emitters to start humming and warming up.

"Your Munchlax is cleaning out our fridge, your Skitty is running mindlessly in circles, your Beautifly is pollinating the flowers in our underground garden with your Venusaur, your Glaceon and Wartortle are playing with some of the local Pokemon, and your Blaziken is aggressively having sex with a Zangoose," Sabrina reported, checking on the positions of all of May's Pokemon with her psychic powers. "They're all fine, and you'll be spending time with them again soon enough…right?" That last was directed at her husband.

"Yeah, of course," he said quickly. "Now, let's get this started before anyone else comes up with any objections." He pressed the 'Start' button.

The radiation emitters lit up and fired intense beams of energy into the tubes, striking the naked human children and causing them to scream and convulse in agony as their frail forms were bathed with near-fatal doses of hazardous radiation. The DNA mist started crackling with energy and changing colors as it absorbed the radiation, various chemical reactions catalyzing within the cloud and beginning the process of bonding with the DNA of the Maple siblings.

A smile on his face, Mewtwo swiveled around in his chair to face Sabrina. "Well, now all we have to do is wait. They should be done in a bit. Want to go get something to eat?"

"Should they be screaming like that?" Sabrina asked, rather concerned.

"Yes, it means everything is working the way it's supposed to. If they weren't screaming, I'd be worried," Mewtwo reported, checking a few displays on the various monitors set up around his console. He got up from his seat and turned to Sabrina. "Come on, let's go to that restaurant we like, since Munchlax has probably eaten everything in the kitchen by now and I've sealed off the hydroponics area to protect it from him."

"How long will they be doing this?" Sabrina asked anxiously, glancing back at her soon-to-be-children as they left the room.

"What, screaming? Oh, not long, a few hours at least, a couple of days at the most." Sabrina stared at him. Mewtwo frowned. "What? You thought genetic modification was a painless process? I'm bombarding them with serious radiation and other junk that's causing their bones to grow and reshape themselves, every inch of their skin to regrow, their organs to reconfigure and even make new ones, and their skulls to get bigger to make room for the larger brains they're going to get. And then there's the nutrient tube growing from their spines to the back of their heads, that's a whole other thing altogether. That one's gonna hurt like a bitch, I can guarantee it."

Sabrina's eye twitched. "And you didn't warn them about this or give them pain killers because…"

"Would have made it harder for the new gene grafts to take," Mewtwo said casually. "While we're out, why don't we stop by at that new exhibit at the Oreburgh Museum about ancient Psychics? We've wanted to go see that for a while. And why not make a date out of it and go have dinner and a movie, too? We've got plenty of time and it's not like we need to be somewhere else."

"Shouldn't somebody stay here and monitor this?" an alarmed Sabrina asked, gesturing to their screaming children.

"That's what computers are for, honey," Mewtwo said soothingly. "The system will message me if something goes wrong."

Sabrina blinked. "…It can do that?"

Mewtwo snorted. "Duh, I built it. Now, what should we have for lunch? I'm in the mood for some sweet sugary sucrose…mmm…sucrose…"

They left. May and Max continued screaming for a while, but there was nothing irregular about that, so the computer didn't do anything about it.

…

Some time later…

Max woke up with a splitting headache. "Ow," he said. He blinked and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Much to his surprise, not only could he see perfectly without his glasses, his hands were now bony three-fingered white ballsy things. "Huh?"

He glanced down at himself and saw that he was now the spitting image of Mewtwo…except smaller. Much smaller. And a little chubbier. With a shorter tail. But other than that, he looked just like Mewtwo. "Coooool."

Max discovered that he could hear lots of faint voices in his head, which seemed a lot bigger and smarter than he remembered it being. He immediately realized that he was picking up the thoughts of everything around him, and instinctively focused his much stronger mental faculties on hearing what everyone was thinking about.

_Foodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood_, one voice droned. Munchlax, Max deduced. Who else would be so obsessed with food?

_Yay! Brightshinysparklyhappything, brightshinysparklyhappything, brightshinysparklyhappything, brightshinysparklyhappything…TAIL! Tailtailtailtailtailtailtailtailtailtailtailtail…phew…pant…hey, where'd tail go? Come back!_ Another, more high-pitched mind squealed. That's Skitty, Max thought. Pretty obvious, really.

_Flowers are pretty. I love flowers, and they love me! Ooh, come on mister rose, give it to me…give it to me HARD…oh yeah…OH YEAH…_ Max quickly cut himself off from Beautifly's mind, more than a little disturbed. He hadn't known she enjoyed pollinating flowers that much.

_Oh, Drew…ohhh…I knew you loved me…and now that Harley's dead and I've won the World Festival Cup, we can finally get married…_ another, also familiar voice whispered in his mind.

Max snickered. _May?_

_Max?! What the…_ Max sensed confusion and alarm from his sister as she abruptly woke up in the tube next to him. _What's going on? How can I hear you inside my head?!_

_I'm psychic now, duh,_ Max replied.

_Huh?_ The confused and still groggy from sleep May asked.

_We were turned into Mewtwos, remember? Which is totally awesome,_ Max explained.

Confused, May looked down at herself…and screamed. She was no longer even remotely human, now she was a female Mewtwo much like Sabrina, only shorter and not quite as pretty, with messy brown hair growing from the top of her head. _Oh Arceus! What's happened to me?!_

_Uh, turned into Mewtwo? By Mewtwo and Sabrina? Remember that?_ Max said dryly. _Wow, looks like you didn't get the same IQ boost from the transformation I did…_

_Shut up, Max!_ May snapped telepathically. _I'm just startled, that's all! Her eyes unfocused for a bit as she started listening to the voices in her own head. I can hear everyone's thoughts…and…EW! I did NOT know Beautifly felt that way about flowers!_

_Yeah, tell me about it,_ Max agreed.

May shot Max an angry glare. _What were you doing reading my Pokemon's minds?!_

He shrugged. _Can't help it. New Psychic, remember? I'm as new to this as you…trust me, if I had known how, I wouldn't have looked that deeply into your mind and saw what you dreamed you were doing with Drew. Aren't the both of you a little young for that?_

May growled. _Oh, you're one to talk. Which of us is the one with a crush on a Pokemon?_

Max paled. Crap, May was already getting used to this psychic stuff, and it was clear that mind-reading could go both ways. _I don't like Ralts like that, he protested anxiously. And besides, even if I did, I'm a Pokemon now, so that sort of thing's kosher now! I think…_

May smirked. _Don't you think you're a little big for that sort of thing? I mean, she's a lot smaller than you…_

Max flushed. _She won't ALWAYS be like that! Especially when she evolves…_ His very white cheeks turned red briefly at the thought, which he immediately tried (and failed) to conceal from his sister, who burst into laughter. Turning redder, Max retaliated, _At least I'll be able to be with someone, how do you think Drew will feel about going out with a Pokemon?_ He smirked cruelly as his sister turned pale(er) at this. _Then again, he might not actually have a problem with that…maybe he WAS sending all those flowers to your Beautifly after all…and I've always suspected he and his Roselia had a thing…_

_SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP!_ May screamed, lashing out psychically without knowing what she was doing and causing Max to cry out in pain and slam back against the interior of his tube, blood gushing from his ears and nose. She gasped in horror. _Max! Oh gosh, I'm sorry, I didn't know what I was doing, I-_ She was cut off when an enraged Max retaliated, attacking her heart and squeezing it with the power of his mind. May gasped and clutched her chest as she went into palpitations, her body losing control of the blood flowing to her enlarged brain and all the other important areas of her body. Everything started turning black…

"Hey, hey, HEY! Cut it out, the both of you!" Mewtwo roared as he and Sabrina teleported into the laboratory. His eyes flashed, and instantly Max and May found themselves both immobilized and trapped inside their own heads, their newfound psychic powers cut off as if some sort of spigot of power had been twisted closed in their heads. After only a few minutes of having an expanded mind and psychokinetic powers, it felt rather claustrophobic to be stuck with a regular old non-telepathic brain again. "What do you think you're doing?! You could have killed each other!"

"S-sorry," the siblings apologized at once.

"W-we didn't mean to do it, honest!" Max insisted.

May nodded unhappily. "Yeah, I was just…so angry, and I…I sort of…"

"Lost control?" Sabrina finished. She nodded in understanding. "It's all right. You're new to your powers, and don't yet understand how to control them. You'll need to be careful in the future, however, to keep your emotions in check. Your feelings are what governs your powers, and if you were to express them too freely…or worse, control them too much…well, terrible things can happen. Take it from someone who knows."

"We'll work on training the two of you in the use of your powers so you can learn how to control them and use them properly without hurting others," Mewtwo explained. "Being a Mewtwo carries great power, and with it great temptation to abuse it. Like Spinarak-Man's Uncle Bill said, 'with great power comes great responsibility', so try and be responsible and not use your powers to kill each other. Or other people. Not unless they really deserve it, anyway."

"You like comic books too?" Max asked, perking up from the horrible feeling he had had upon realizing he had nearly killed his sister.

Mewtwo nodded. "And video games."

"I love you, Dad!" Max cried, getting all teary-eyed.

"Max!" May snapped. "He's not…I mean, he is, but…look, Dad's only been dead for a few weeks, aren't you bonding with him a little too fast?!"

"Better too fast than too slow," Max retorted.

"But it's like you're abandoning Dad's memory and replacing him for some new one before he's even cold in the grave!" May insisted.

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK!" Max yelled angrily, his eyes flashing…but nothing happened thanks to the psychic 'training clamps' Mewtwo had locked over their brains.

The psychic sighed. "I can see this is going to take a lot of work…"

"Parenthood usually does, dear," Sabrina pointed out. "Now, do you think you could let them out of those tubes? They've been in there for the last few days, I'm sure they could use something to eat."

Almost as if on cue, Max and May's stomachs started to growl. The siblings grimaced. "Well, now that you mention it, I am kind of hungry," May admitted.

"Yeah…but is there anything left to eat with May's gluttonous Munchlax roaming about?" Max asked.

"Hey!" May yelled angrily. "Munchlax is not…" She sighed. "Oh, who am I kidding? He's got a black hole for a stomach…"

"One that could devour the whole universe if it weren't kept in that fat, fleshy form," Mewtwo agreed. "We've been having to buy new groceries every few hours and keeping all the hydroponics bays and gardens sealed off to keep him from eating everything we have…and we've needed to put electric force fields around our most valued possessions to keep him from eating those, too." He sniffed, a tear forming in his eyes. "It was too late for me to save my prized limited edition copy of Empire Souls III, with the autographs of all the game's creators on it…someone who does something like that deserves to die in my book, but Sabrina wouldn't let me kill him…"

"I was tempted to, though, after he ate most of my back issues of Spoon Benders Monthly," Sabrina growled.

May sweatdropped. "Oh dear…when I get out of here, I'd better whip up a batch of my special pink Pokeblock…it's the only thing that seems to sate his appetite for any period of time…"

"Assuming there's any material left in this cave for you to make said Pokeblock out of, that would be most welcome," Mewtwo said, pushing a few buttons on his console and causing the walls of the tubes holding Max and May to slide upwards, releasing the newly turned Mewtwos.

Max and May both tentatively stepped out onto the laboratory floor…and wobbled, nearly falling over. "Wh-whoa!" Max cried, teetering back and forth before managing to stabilize himself through the use of his tail. "Phew…walking's going to take some getting used to…"

"Along with everything else," May agreed, looking at her fingers in dismay. "I don't have fingnerails anymore…"

"So?" Max asked.

"So now how can I get my nails done?!" Max rolled his eyes and said nothing.

"Aren't they beautiful, Mewtwo?" Sabrina asked her husband quietly as their new children slowly came towards them in fits and starts. "Our children…we're parents now. It's what I've always wanted."

Mewtwo nodded, a happy smile on his face. "Yes, me too…and I'm amazed at how well the genetic reconfiguration worked. There doesn't seem to be a trace of human DNA left in them at all! Not only that, but there are no visible negative side effects from the transformation…well, not yet, anyway. There's still plenty of time for those to manifest later." Sabrina rolled her eyes and said nothing.

…

A little later, after May had managed to satisfy Munchlax's appetite and Sabrina was able to get some more food for their starving children, the new family had just settled down in the kitchen to start training Max and May in their abilities when the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," Mewtwo said, teleporting out of the room.

"We have a doorbell?" asked a confused May.

"Yes, so that guests can let us know they're here," Sabrina explained. "Well, actually, we have sensors scattered all around the forest to tell us if intruders are approaching, and our own psychic abilities would tell us if anyone we knew was nearby, but we installed a doorbell to make our visiting friends feel as if they're actually getting the drop on us, rather than us knowing every movement they make before they make it."

"Ah," said May.

Mewtwo returned with Rayquaza, Darkrai, Lugia, Groudon, Giratina, and Registeel in tow. For some reason Groudon was wearing pants and Registeel was wearing a blond wig, a cone-shaped brassiere, and a purple miniskirt. Darkrai was also carrying a gift-wrapped box of some sort. May and Max gaped at the sight of so many Legendary Pokemon in one room…and were amazed that they all seemed to fit. "Honey, my friends are here!"

"So these are the new kids, huh? They're scrawnier than I thought they'd be," Giratina said.

"Most children start out small, Giratina," Lugia said.

"Not like you'll ever have any of your own to find out for yourself," Darkrai joked, causing Giratina to snarl at him.

"Can I eat them if they don't work out well?" Groudon asked Sabrina.

"NO!" she yelled at him, eyes flashing and hair flying out behind her.

He winced. "Okay, okay…fine…I'll just eat someone else's babies…"

Rayquaza sighed in exasperation. "Groudon, why do you insist on eating babies?"

"Because they're full of fiber, duh!" Groudon retorted, as if it were obvious.

"Wow, Rayquaza, Darkrai, Lugia, Groudon, Giratina, and Registeel all in one room! This is so cool!" Max cried. He frowned. "But why's Registeel wearing a dress?"

"She got her sex changed recently," Lugia explained.

"Beep boop beep bop beep beep boop bop beep," Registeel beeped sensually, sounding vaguely feminine.

"Oh," said Max, dumbfounded.

"Wh-what are they all doing here?!" May asked, unnerved.

"Oh, they're friends of the family," Mewtwo explained. "After I got formally recognized as a Legendary Pokemon, I started hanging out with them and we became good friends. When my computer told me you two would wake up today, I invited them over for a birthday party of sorts."

Sabrina frowned. "Then why didn't you invite my friends?"

Mewtwo hesitated. "Uh…I guess I forgot…" Sabrina snarled and her eyes flashed. Mewtwo gulped.

"Don't worry, they'll be here later, we called them after Mewtwo called us," Rayquaza assured Sabrina. "They're out shopping for an appropriate gift for you to give your new children. They're rather miffed that they didn't get notice ahead of time."

Darkrai laughed and slammed his box onto the table. "Ha, they shouldn't bother, because we have the ultimate present right here!"

"Ooh, what's in it?" Max asked intently.

"It's…" Darkrai ripped the box open, reached inside, and thrusted a grisly object into Max's face. "YOUR GRANDFATHER'S SEVERED HEAD! MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Max and May screamed…and then May realized, "Wait, that's not our grandfather's head! It's the head of some other guy!"

Max blinked. "Hey yeah, it is!"

"Well, technically, that is your grandfather," Mewtwo rebutted. "It's the severed head of my 'father,' Giovanni." He looked at his friends. "How did you get this?"

"Oh, the usual way," said Giratina. "We tortured and killed him brutally, then chopped off his head, dipped it in preservatives, and wrapped it up as a gift to give to your kids."

Mewtwo smiled. "Awww, thanks guys…this is the nicest thing you've ever given me!"

"It's for the kids," Sabrina reminded him.

Mewtwo sagged. "Oh. Right."

"Uh, it's all right, you can have it," May said quickly. "We don't really want it. At all."

"Hey, speak for yourself-" Max started, until his sister covered his mouth with her hands.

Mewtwo brightened up visibly. "I can keep it? Really? Awww, thanks kids, you're the best!" He took the severed head from Darkrai. "I think I'm going to stick it on a pike on our front lawn to scare the neighbors! Won't that be fun?"

Darkrai, Groudon, and Giratina all nodded in agreement. "Yeah, definitely!" Sabrina and Rayquaza both sighed and rolled their eyes. Registeel beeped something. Rayquaza rummaged through the recently restocked fridge.

Mewtwo frowned, his mood changing again. "Hey, where's Heatran? I invited him too!"

"He would've come, but he's getting married to his nineteenth wife today," Darkrai explained. "He said he'd make it later, if he could still move after the unbelievable amount of sex he's going to get."

May was appalled. "He's been married that many times?! How horrible, that's an awful lot of divorces…or dead wives?"

"Huh? Oh no, all his wives are still alive and married to him," Groudon explained. "He's polymorphous."

"That's polygamous," Giratina corrected.

"Gesundheit," said Groudon.

"Hence why he might not be able to move since he'll be getting sex from his new wife, and all his other wives, all at once," Lugia explained to a stunned Max and May. "I'd be envious of him, if my own wife didn't have sex with me with the vigor of at least twenty other women to make up for all the time we've lost what with me having to stay away from home at my thankless job babysitting the idiot elemental birds."

"Why aren't you with them now?" Max asked.

"I've introduced them to drugs," Lugia explained.

"Ah," said Max.

Rayquaza pulled his head out of the fridge. "You're out of orange juice and milk," he complained. Sabrina rolled her eyes and gestured, causing two cartons of each to teleport into the room. "Oh, thanks."

"We should probably move somewhere else, when the womenfolk get here, we're going to run out of room pretty fast," Giratina commented. "Especially with the sack of presents for the newborns they'll no doubt be carrying with them."

Mewtwo nodded and put down Giovanni's severed head. "Good idea. Let's adjourn to the ballroom."

May gaped. "We have a ballroom?!"

"Of course we do, where else would we dance and host parties?" Sabrina asked as if it were obvious. May stared at her.

"Hey Mewtwo, heads up!" Darkrai yelled, throwing a cob of corn at Mewtwo's face.

He screamed and fell to the floor, writhing and scratching as bumps and rashes appeared all over his skin. "Noooo! Not corn! Curse you Darkrai, how did you know it was my onlyyyy weaknesssssss!" Darkrai laughed malevolently instead of answering.

Sabrina sighed and got to her feet. "Hang on, I'll go get the ointment…and stop scratching, you'll only make it worse."

"But…it…itches…so…much!" Mewtwo gasped as he continued scratching himself and Darkrai and all his other friends laughed at his suffering.

"Our new family and friends are so weird. I love this place and never want to leave!" Max cheered happily.

"Is it too late for me to change back to a human again?" May asked desperately.

"Yes," said everyone else in the room.

May sighed. "That's what I was afraid of."

"Beep boop beep bop boop," Registeel said reassuringly.

"I have no idea what you just said," she replied.

"Bop boop beep beep," Registeel beeped.

May groaned and put her head on the table. "Whatever."

Giovanni's severed head said nothing in response to this, because it was a severed head.

…

Over the period of the next few years, Mewtwo and Sabrina taught their children everything they knew about how to control their psychic abilities and live life as a Mewtwo. It was not always easy, and there were times when they were so angry at each other they felt like killing someone, but they always got over such road bumps in their relationship eventually and grew stronger as a family. Mewtwo and Sabrina learned how to be good parents from their interactions with their children, and eventually decided that they would like to have more kids someday…though not for a very, very long time.

May eventually grew to like being a Mewtwo (_without_ getting brainwashed) and, after she had matured and gained further control over her new powers, decided to return to the Pokemon Contest circuit. She was determined not to use her abilities to cheat, but was surprised to discover she didn't have to, with her new mental faculties and intellect she was capable of formulating and executing magnificent and showy techniques with her Pokemon, as well as predicting just about everything her opponent might do in advance so that she could counter it. She soon started winning dozens of ribbons and Grand Festivals, but she rapidly grew bored with coordinating because it had become far too easy for her and sought a more challenging career in advanced particle physics.

Once he had gotten a bit older, Max decided to go out and explore the world, much like his adopted father had before settling down. The very first stop he made before officially setting out on his journey was to visit the Ralts he had saved and befriended long ago, to fulfill the promise he had made to her. He was more than pleased to find that she had evolved into a Kirlia since then, and they set off together…and, predictably, got romantically involved when they both became more mature. And after she evolved into a sexy-ass Gardevoir.

Heatran's sage advice helped all of Mewtwo's male friends resolve the issues they had with their significant others, and lived happily with said others for a while, until the next inevitable crisis in their relationships popped up. But they got over those too. Eventually.

Heatran himself got married to a few more women and had many more children. They're very happy together, thanks for asking. He also saved the world a few times in his side job as a secret agent.

Ash Ketchum did not appear in this story.

Giovanni's head sat on Mewtwo's lawn for about a week until a Skarmory swooped down and snatched it away. Mewtwo never got it back.

…

The End


	21. Azure Days pt 2

Azure Days (Part 2 of 3)

Disclaimer: We only own the people you don't recognize. And even then we may not. Capeesh? (Lazily copied from the prior part! Whee!)

Author Note: This Story is written by Rusty Raccoon. It's by far the longest Chronicle yet... (And more lazy copying!)

And now, the continuation...

- - -

The group consisting of Ash, Misty, Timothy, Jean Luc, and Matthew walked through the woods in the direction that the base was supposed to be. The others had chosen to stand guard incase Team Rocket attacked the village.

"I hope no one sees us," Matthew said.

"It's dark out, we'll be fine," Timothy said.

"Still, who knows what sort of people might be wandering around at night? Alex may like the dark but I'm not so crazy about it," Matthew said.

"If anything tries anything, we can fight them off. I'm not going to let anyone keep me from rescuing Ness, Alexandra, Whiskers and Jack," Timothy said.

"What about Chris?" Matthew asked.

"They can keep him for all I care," Timothy said.

Ash looked back at Timothy and slowed down, allowing Misty and Jean Luc to take the lead.

"Timothy, you know that you don't mean that. Anger isn't going to solve this situation," Ash said.

"I know, it's just, why couldn't he have asked before taking Ness? It's so frustrating that he does these things. I know it's not his fault but it's like dealing with a toddler!" Timothy said.

"I understand. However, Anger clouds our judgment and can lead to us doing things that we later regret. If we allow our anger to become this powerful then it controls us. Your friend appears to have allowed the instincts and desires of the Furret overcome him in some cases. We cannot allow ourselves to feel anger toward him. However, we can feel sympathy and try to help him to control them rather than vice versa," Ash said.

Timothy nodded. "At least Maybel won't have to deal with him using her like a walking campfire anymore."

Ash chuckled. "Chris is just lucky Maybel isn't like my Charizard. If she was, Chris would have a few flamethrower attacks to deal with."

Timothy chuckled. "Well, it would have taught him a lesson, that's for sure!"

Ash laughed and walked back to the front of the group.

"You think they're all right?" Matthew asked.

"I hope so," Timothy said.

- - -

Back at the base, Chris was getting restless. The man, (whom Chris had come to learn whose name was Alvin when an assistant said it) had asked Chris several more times where the village was. Chris' lack of response had resulted in Alvin shocking Chris or exposing Alex to the lights.

Chris was sore and his fur was singed. He wasn't sure how much more he was going to be able to take.

This time, when Alvin walked into the room, he had a syringe in his right hand.

"Your unwillingness to cooperate has forced me to use stronger measures. I've found that some people are less eager to cooperate when their well being is at stake. However, when the well being of other is at stake, they're a bit more cooperative," Alvin said.

"I won't cooperate with you," Chris said.

Alvin turned towards Alex and showed Chris the syringe. "This contains a serum been working on. It may allow your friend to tolerate light or it may outright kill her. Now, if you don't cooperate ... well, we'll need a test subject," Alvin said.

"Why are you doing this? We never hurt you. We just wanted to be left alone!" Alex said.

Alvin rubbed Alex's chin and smiled. "My dear, it's not personal. I'm just doing my job. I need to know where you are the others like you are hiding."

Chris struggled against his restraints.

"Coward! You're only acting like this because we can't get you back. If I could get out of these restraints, I'd tear your heart out," Chris said.

"I'm sorry you feel that way," Alvin said. He turned back to Alex and smiled. "Well my dear, it looks like you'll be my first test subject."

Before Alvin could inject Alex, another person entered the room.

"Enough!"

Alvin turned around to see that it was Giovanni himself.

"Boss, I ... I wasn't expecting you," Alvin said.

Giovanni frowned. "So I see. I did not authorize this."

Alvin began to quiver, eliciting a small grin from Chris who had a feeling that Alvin demeanor was about to take a drastic change.

"Sir, they haven't been co-operating. I saw no other choice," Alvin said.

"Fool! They may have information but they are also rare, perhaps the only of their respective kind! I did not authorize putting their lives in danger. Requesting information is one thing. Torture is another," Giovanni said.

Alvin put a cap back on the syringe and put it back in his coat pocket before dropping to his knees.

"Sir, I'm sorry, I just wanted to please you!" Alvin said, his voice trembling.

"I understand. However, I will not tolerate this behavior. Get out of my sight. I trust you will learn from this!" Giovanni said.

Alvin stood up, nodding his head. "Yes sir, of course sir. I won't fail you again."

Giovanni glared at Alvin, who left the room. Walking over to Alex, Giovanni looked her over. "I am sorry he was violated you in this manor but we need this information."

"Leave her alone!" Chris cried.

Giovanni turned to face Chris. "Your mate I take it?"

Chris looked at Alex, who nodded her head. "I guess you could say that. Please, we just want to go home. We never hurt you. We just want people to leave us alone."

Giovanni nodded his head. "Despite our reputation, I am not the madman some would like to think I am. I'm sure we can come to a compromise."

"Please, I just want to see Whiskers and Jack again. The Espeon ... Ness isn't mine. I wanted to play ball with him, that's all," Chris said.

"When they captured you, they brought a Rattata and Spearow with them. I take it they are Whiskers and Jack?" Giovanni asked.

Chris nodded. "Please, are they all right? My friend would never forgive me if Ness got hurt."

"They are well. However, we have things we need to discuss. But before that, why don't we let you two out of these bonds. I'll give you a chance to get cleaned up, and then we can talk," Giovanni said.

Chris nodded his head.

"Now, if you're thinking of escape, I assure you that this facility is well guarded. Neither of you would get far. It'll make thing easier on all of us if the two of you co-operate," Giovanni said.

"All right, I just don't want Alex or anyone else to get hurt because of something I did," Chris said.

- - -

Forty five minutes later, two guards were leading Chris and Alex down a hallway leading to an office that they'd heard Giovanni was in. They had allowed Alex and Chris to take a shower and had provided clothing for both of them.

Alex wore a yellow shirt and light blue pants while Chris, having decided to wear something wore a black polo shirt.

While they walked, Chris considering attempting to escape. However, he didn't want to put Alex in danger. He also considered using Follow Me to get the guards to only pay attention to him so Alex could get away. However, he remembered that it doesn't work on humans.

The group came to a wooden door which one of the guards knocked on. Once Giovanni learned that it was Chris and Alex, he let them in.

Giovanni's office had subdued lighting, Chris assumed for Alex's benefit.

The two walked into the office and up to a desk, where Giovanni was sitting. He motioned for them to sit in chairs across from him on the desk.

"Thank you for coming," Giovanni said.

Chris and Alex sat in the chairs. Chris on the right, Alex on the left.

"Once again, I am sorry for how you've been treated. There was other ways to conduct business. Would either of you like anything to drink?"

"No thanks," Alex said.

"I'm fine. I would like to know where I and my friends Pokémon are," Chris said.

"Of course, how rude of me," Giovanni said.

He pressed a button on the table and requested someone to bring Whiskers, Jack and Ness in. Soon after, one of the guards that had brought Alex and Chris to the office brought in Whiskers and Jack while other brought Ness in.

Chris stood up and ran over to the guards.

"Whiskers, Jack, are you all right?" Chris asked.

"Yes," Whiskers said.

"I'm fine," Jack said.

"Ness, I'm sorry about this. I hope Tim can forgive me," Chris said.

"He will be upset but I can speak with him," Ness said.

"Fascinating," Giovanni said.

Chris turned around and looked in Giovanni's direction. He saw Giovanni stroking his chin as he smiled.

"Release their Pokémon, we have things to discuss," Giovanni said.

Chris picked up Whiskers while Jack flew onto Chris' right shoulder. Ness walked beside Chris as he sat back down beside Alex.

"What's fascinating?" Chris asked.

"You understand them perfectly don't you?" Giovanni asked.

"I ... oh no," Chris said, shaking his head.

"Well, at least he knows so we don't have to worry about it anymore," Alex said.

"With this ability you'd be useful to us. You could use ... other means then force to acquire rare Pokémon," Giovanni said, folding his hands together.

Chris petted Whiskers and looked at Alex.

"We aren't interested in joining you," Alex said.

"I doubt society will accept you. I can offer you riches and adventure. Would it not be better then hiding in the woods for the rest of your lives?" Giovanni asked.

"Not if it means doing something illegal. I won't attack innocent people," Chris said.

"Nor will I," Alex said.

Giovanni slammed his right hand on the desk. "Don't be foolish. Where do you think you're going to go? Maybe I should put it another way. We could help find a cure for you if you wish it. I'm sure your families miss you and you miss them."

Chris sighed. This was not looking good.

"I doubt they'd want to see us if we cooperated with criminals!" Alex said.

"Criminals? While we at times have to resort to less ethical measures, we are a business."

Chris was about to say something when Giovanni's radio beeped.

"What is it?" Giovanni asked.

"Sir, one of our look outs has spotted five more of those Pokémon people headed our way," a voice said.

Giovanni sighed and looked at Chris and Alex.

"It seems your friends are on their way. Now, we can do this one of two ways. If you tell me more about them, I'll tell my men to stand down. If not, we'll have to use ... others means to deal with them. What's it going to be?" Giovanni asked.

- - -

Ash, who was still leading the way, stopped and motioned for the others to stop.

"I think someone's watching us," Ash said.

"Where?" Misty asked.

Jean Luc's cheeks sparked. "I don't see anyone."

Suddenly the ground began to shake and split apart as a Marrowack jumped out of the ground, knocking everyone onto the backs.

"Never mind," Jean Luc said.

"I suggest you surrender," The Marrowack said.

Timothy stepped forward, frowning. "Where is my Espeon?"

The bushes in front of them parted as two male Rockets pushed their way through them.

"You'll see him soon enough," one of the Rockets said.

The other rocket released an Arbok while the first released a Venusaur and Persian.

"Just like the last time. Use your sleep powder attack. Better get the freak that looks like a Zangoose.

"Freak?" Matthew yelled.

"Look, we don't need to do this." Ash said.

The Marrowack started walking toward Jean Luc and the Venusaur towards Matthew. The Persian leaped at Ash and starts scratching at him.

"Fine, if that's the way you want it..."

Jean Luc let loose with a thunder shock Attack, which the Marrowack deflected into the ground. Timothy saw that Matthew was tackling the Arbok and successfully avoiding its attempts to poison him.

The first rocket released a Swampert and told it to attack Misty.

Misty backed up, looking upset. "I can't hurt a water type."

She ended up almost backing into Jean Luc.

"Want to switch?" Jean Luc asked.

Misty nodded and Jean Luc leaped over her and started shooting several bolts of electricity at the Swampert. Misty cringed at the idea but knew it was self defense. She glared at the Marrowack, which inadvertently used the attack.

"Now we're more even," Misty said.

Ash had managed to get the Persian off of his back and they were exchanging tackle moves back and forth. The Venusaur charged at Timothy, who seemed unwilling to go two against one.

The Venusaur attempted to use his sleep powder attack against Matthew. Timothy however, leapt in front of it, taking brunt of it. When the rocket appeared satisfied, Timothy snickered.

"Sorry, I've got a bad case of insomnia," Timothy said with a smirk.

The Venusaur whipped Timothy with its vine whip. The first hit struck Timothy in the chest. Timothy was ready for the second attack; he held out his front right arm and allowed the vine to circle around it. He smirked, pulled the Venusaur close to him and pounded him into unconsciousness.

Seeing that Jean Luc had managed to subdue the Swampert, Matthew the Arbok, Ash the Persian and Misty the Marrowack, Timothy walked towards the rockets.

"You see... this is why I chose a Squirtle... Steve."

The rocket's eyes went wide. "Wh-- How...?"

With a single punch, Tim knocked the guy out before Steve could figure out the answer to that question.

"What was that all about?" Ash asked.

"I recognized him. I used to know him," Timothy said.

The other rocket glared at the group.

"You won't get away! I'll tell the boss!" he said.

"No, I think you need to get some rest," Jean Luc said before thundershocking the rocket into unconsciousness.

"Ouch," Matthew said.

"Better them then us," Timothy said.

"Come on, we must be getting close," Ash said.

Timothy nodded. When he looked at the bushes to his side, he could have sworn he saw a pair of glowing eyes. They disappeared in an instant.

"You see something?" Misty asked.

"Na was probably just my imagination," Timothy said.

Misty looked at the bushes, nodded and the group resumed walking.

- - -

Back in the base, Chris and Alex were starting down Giovanni.

"I'm sorry you chose not to cooperate. You could have made things easier on us all."

Giovanni's intercom went off. The person on the other end informed him of the group's breaking through their first line of defense.

Giovanni frowned, broke the connection and looked at Chris and Alex

"I tried to be reasonable. Guards!"

Chris stood up, frowned and petted Ness. "You're forgetting that we can fight as well."

Giovanni laughed. "The Espeon may be able to do something. I'm sure your friend might as well. However, would you risk her life? With the flick of a switch, I can flood this room with enough light to make her more than uncomfortable."

"No!" Chris yelled.

Giovanni smiled. "Then I suggest you take a seat. You two will both be useful as insurance in case your friends continue to cause ... problems for us."

Alex frowned. "I'm sorry Chris. This is my fault. If I wasn't weak against the light."

Chris petted Alex's arm. "Don't worry, Tim will get us out of this. I'm sure he brought..."

Giovanni leaned forward. "Yes? Is there something you want to tell me?"

Chris mentally cursed at himself before folding his arms. "No, I can't think of anything."

Giovanni shook his head and moved his right for finger towards the switch that activated the lights. "Are you **sure** of that?"

Chris frowned. "I could jump you or have Whiskers, Jack or Ness tackle you."

"Perhaps, but as you can see, I now have four guards. You might be able to stop me, but can you stop them?" Giovanni said.

"I don't have anything to tell you. Tim might have brought someone powerful with him, that's all," Chris said.

For a few seconds, Chris could swear he saw a pair of glowing eyes behind and above Giovanni. When Giovanni looked behind himself, the eyes were gone.

"What did you see?" Giovanni asked.

"Nothing," Chris said.

"Damn it," Giovanni said slamming his right fist into the desk. "Do you really want your friends to get hurt? You're not accomplishing anything by being tight lipped."

"I don't want anyone to get hurt. Which is why I'd never join you," Chris said.

"I assume that your friend can speak for herself. What about you?" Giovanni asked.

Alex folded her arms and shook her head. "I won't betray my friends."

Giovanni motioned for the guards, who came forward and grabbed both Alex and Chris.

"Then you'll be of no use to me otherwise."

Peter was floating back and forth, watching for any signs of attack when he felt something. A flash of words and images entered his mind. He saw Ash and the others fighting various Rockets. Then he saw Giovanni in an office with Chris and Alex, who were in danger.

Blinking, Peter knew that he had to get to the scene as soon as possible. Meanwhile, in the office, two of the guards were leading Alex, Chris and Ness away from Giovanni. Whiskers was on one of Chris' shoulders and Jack the others.

Chris looked at Alex and switched to Furret speak.

"We can take them. If two of us go for their guns, the other can go after Giovanni," Chris said.

"What was that?" one of the guards said.

Chris and Alex stopped walking and the other guard tapped Chris with the butt of the gun to get Chris to move.

"All right, Ness and I will go after them. You go after the big guy," Alex said in Sneasel speak.

"What are you saying?" the first guard asked.

Alex looked and Chris and they both resumed walking.

"Nothing," Alex started. "Except for this..."

Alex elbowed the guard behind her. When the guard behind Chris went to aim his gun, Ness knocked it out of the man's hands with a burst of physic energy. Chris watched as Alex wrestled with the other guard's gun. With a knee to the guard's stomach and then his groin, she managed to get the gun off of him and throw it to the ground.

Chris turned around and charged at Giovanni who stood as if ready for an attack. With agility that Chris didn't think Giovanni had, he kicked Chris, sending him falling to the ground as Whiskers and Jack jumped off of his shoulders.

"Fool, did you really think you could take me? You, a pathetic nobody?" Giovanni said.

As Chris tried to stand up, Giovanni slugged him in the face; drawing blood from Chris' nose and making Chris feel dizzy.

Giovanni stood up and walked back over to his desk with a grin on his face. He looked over to see that Alex and Ness were gaining the upper hand over the guards.

Giovanni shook his head. "I'm sorry it had to be this way."

He reached for the button to turn the lights on as Alex managed to knock out the guard fighting her.

"No!" Chris yelled.

Whiskers leaped onto the chair Chris had sat on and then onto Giovanni's desk. She bit at Giovanni's hand, making him yell out in pain.

"Damn rat, I should have Persian eat you. In fact, I just might do that. With a flick of his hand, Giovanni send several drops of his blood and Whiskers flying.

Chris gasped and ran to catch Whiskers while Ness, looked on in horror, unable to concentrate enough to levitate her.

"Don't worry, I'll catch you!" Jack said, flying under Whiskers and managing to catch her. As he landed as best as he could, which while rough and giving both several bruises, didn't do any serious damage to either.

Giovanni clutched his wounded hand and grinned as he saw Alex approaching Chris' position.

With his good hand, he slammed his fist down onto the switch, turning the lights on. Alex yelled out in pain and fell to her knees.

"No, damn it no!" Chris yelled.

As Ness managed to knock out the other guard. He sends a wave of physic energy toward the first row of lights, smashing them. Chris ran to the other side of the room, grabbed one of the guns and shoot out of the second set. Unfortunately, Chris had never received training in guns of any kind. In truth he hated them. His lack of training had him unprepared for the recoil, which sends him flying back, stinging his tail and pulling the muscles in his right arm.

Grunting, Chris managed to stand up and walked over to Alex. He knelt down beside her, touching her neck to make sure she was still breathing.

"Are you all right?" Chris asked.

Taking deep breaths, Alex nodded.

Angered that Giovanni would hurt his mate, Chris stood up and approached Giovanni's desk.

"You'll pay for that!" Chris said.

Giovanni smiled. "I don't think so. But, if you haven't taken enough of a beating already, Persian can help you with that."

Chris watched as the agile cat leapt over the desk. Persian went right for Ness. Chris, unwilling to risk any more damage to Ness, yelled at Persian.

"Leave him alone!" Chris said.

Chris took the opportunity to use Follow Me. He assumed a fighting stance.

Persian leapt at Chris and use furry swiped, scratching Chris badly.

He grimmest from the attack, which seemed far more powerful than it, should have. Chris tried to tackle the Persian, only to miss when Persian dodged. When the Persian returned the tackle, Chris wasn't so lucky. Chris flew back into the chairs. Stars danced around his vision and Chris shook his head and blinked in an attempt to clear his head.

"Fool, did you expect that I wouldn't have trained such a magnificent creature. From the way you acted, you'd like my Persian was as pathetic as that talking Meowth. Which oddly, I haven't heard from in some time," Giovanni said.

Chris stood up and blinked his eyes as his breathing became labored.

"I wonder what could have happened to them." Chris asked.

"That not your concern. Finish this!" Giovanni said.

"With pleasure," Persian said.

Chris looked at Alex, fearing that Persian would go after her, Whiskers, Jack or Ness next. He tried a quick attack on the Persian, which seemed about as effective as striking a diamond with a sheet of glass.

Persian grinned and hit Chris with a slam, knocking him to the ground and into unconsciousness.

Giovanni, seeing that everyone else but Ness appeared to be down, put his hands behind his back and beamed. "Well, what's it going to be Espeon?"

Ness' eyes glowed and he assumed a fighting position.

Giovanni grinned.

Ness with a Psybeam. While it struck Persian, the cat barely seemed affected by it. If anything, it wasn't much more effective than a punch or two.

Persian grinned and charged at Ness. Ness managed to dodge the attack. However Persian was agile turned around and struck Ness with a quick attack.

Ness, who wished that Timothy was there to guide him, was determined to do his best. When he regained his composure, he did his best to point Timothy in the right direction.

Persian was ready for another exchange. This time, Ness unleashed a physic attack just as Persian leapt at him. That seemed to faze Persian more as he flew back, but still managed to land on his feet.

As Ness readied himself he heard something in the hallway on the other side of the doors.

"Now what is it?" Giovanni said.

Ness watched as the doors to the office smashed open, revealing Ash with Misty and Jean Luc flanking him.

Giovanni smiled, sat back down in his chair and folded his arms (making sure to reach for a bandage for his wounded hand).

"Always nice to see new guests. I suppose you expect me to play some fanfare?" Giovanni said.

Ash walked into the room, while Misty ran over to Alex, who told her to see if Chris was all right. Jean Luc approached Persian, Jean Luc's cheeks sparking.

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Jean Luc asked.

Giovanni sighed. He looked him when he heard a rumbling. "Oh ... drat."

The wall behind him crumbled as Timothy walked through, creating a large hole. Walking behind Timothy and covered in dust was Matthew, who ran over to Chris' side when he saw Misty kneeling down beside Chris.

"If you've killed...."

"It's all right, he's not dead. But we need to get Joy to see him," Misty said.

"Ness, you're all right. Why would Chris bring you without asking?" Timothy asked.

"He didn't mean it, he was excited. Please, forgive him," Ness said.

Persian appeared to be growing impatient. He seemed to have had enough and charged at Jean Luc. Jean Luc jumped and fired off a thunder bolt. It was enough to knock Persian back and singe some of his fur. However, Persian appeared to be as well trained and powerful as Jean Luc was.

"Who are you people?" Giovanni asked.

Having seen that Matthew was attending to Chris, Misty went to check on Alex, Whiskers and Jack.

Timothy walked over to Ash's side.

Persian and Jean Luc continued to fight, each hitting with powerful blows. Ash could tell that Jean-Luc was growing tired from the day's multiple battles.

"All right, Jean Luc now uses ... our move!" Ash said.

"What?" Persian asked.

Jean Luc nodded and charged at Persian before unleashing a Volt Tackle. The unexpected move was enough to knock Persian out.

"No, it's impossible!" Giovanni said, slamming his good hand into the desk.

Ash started Giovanni down. "Nothing's impossible!"

"Of course I should have known," Giovanni said.

Giovanni watched as another figure flew into the room. This time, it was Peter.

"Another ... guest?" Giovanni asked, "So, you know that I'm..."

"...."

Giovanni smiled. "I would expect nothing less from you ... Ash."

"You know..." Ash said.

"Yes, I know. I've been following your adventures. I'm sure you've made your mother proud. I admit that seeing you like this was a shock. However, it seems fitting that one who's dedicated his life to Pokémon should become one," Giovanni said.

"I don't understand why you are so interested in Ash?" Timothy asked.

"Why don't you tell them?" Giovanni asked with a grin.

Ash sighed and for a second, appeared as though he was going to be sick to his stomach.

"I'm sure your friends want to know the truth. You should be proud. Neither of them said a word. They seemed determined to protect you," Giovanni said.

Ash looked back and down at Chris, who was starting to wake up. Matthew as holding him partly up and trying to keep Chris from standing before he was ready.

"Don't people willing to make such sacrifices deserve to know the truth?" Giovanni asked.

"He's ... he's my father," Ash said.

"No, it's impossible," Misty said.

"Ironic isn't it? The hero so many trainers look up to and envy. If they only knew the truth," Giovanni said.

Timothy frowned at Giovanni. "I can see that nobility doesn't come from your side of the family...."

"Ash, why didn't you ever tell us?" Misty asked.

"Wow, Ash Ketchum the son of Giovanni. Of all people. It boggles the mind," Matthew said.

"Even I wouldn't have imagined that," Chris said, wincing.

"Don't blame him for it young lady. I can imagine that it's not something he's proud of. If only he would accept his true calling," Giovanni said.

Ash frowned. "I'll never join you. Now, my friends and I are leaving."

"Going so soon?" Giovanni asked.

"Wait, something's wrong here," Peter said.

Giovanni looked at Peter and frowned. "Stay back!"

"Timothy, hold him down," Peter said.

Timothy nodded, walking over to Giovanni, and as Giovanni struggled, Timothy held him down against the desk, using all four of his powerful arms.

"What are you doing?" Ash asked.

Peter put his ghostly hand in Giovanni's chest, with Ash gasping in reaction. Giovanni struggled and for a second, his eyes seemed to glow.

"Now, just like Haunter said, like pulling off a wood tick," Peter said.

Giovanni quivered and yelled as Peter pulled out ghostly image of a beautiful woman. The mere sight it her caused Ash to jump and made Jean Luc gasp - Ash had saw pictures of her a long time ago... His grandmother, Madam Boss.

"Is that...?" Ash wondered aloud.

"Guy's meet the true leader of Team Rocket," Peter said.

Giovanni lay on the table gasping and appearing to be regaining his sanity.

"What? Where am I?" Giovanni asked.

"No, you will not deny me!" Madam Boss said.

"You! You've been inside of my dad all of this time? You're the one that's been running Team Rocket?" Ash asked.

"And I still will!" Madam boss screeched.

"No!" Giovanni said his voice weak.

"We've uncovered you, it's time for you to move on," Peter said.

"I will not give up my position!" Madam boss said.

The sound of Madam boss' voice sent shivers down the spines of everyone in the room.

"It isn't your position anymore! I won't let you steal my dad from me again!" Ash said.

Timothy let go of Giovanni and helped him up and away from the ghost of Madam Boss. She tried to follow Giovanni but Peter blocked her.

Giovanni looked at Chris with a look of concern of his face. "Am I responsible for this?"

"No," Misty said.

"You will not deny what is mine!" Madam boss yelled.

"It isn't yours now. You took what was never yours to begin with. Now, are you going to go quietly, or do we have to force you?" Timothy said.

"Grandma, please it isn't fair to Dad to do this to him," Ash said.

"Life isn't fair, you know that. The life of one man is nothing compared to what I have been able to and can continue to do with him," Madam Boss said.

"One life is important! But your life is over, it's time for you to move onto the next level," Ash said.

"No! I can't move on! There's so much more for me to do!"

Peter hovered closer to Madam Boss. "There will always be much more for you to do. How would you feel if someone had done this to you while you were still alive?"

"I ... no, I am meant for more!" Madam boss said.

Giovanni stood up and faced Madam Boss. "No, I won't allow it. I don't know what you've forced me to do but it ends now. How much more pain do you want to cause? You wanted to unite the world? Do you call this united?"

"It can't end like this!" Madam boss said.

"It already ended when you ... died," Ash said.

"Besides, even if you pull the same trick again, we know what you're doing and how to stop you," Peter said.

Madam boss looked at the ground. "It seems that my time *has* come to an end. Of all ways for it to end. Maybe it is time for me to move on if there's nothing else I can do in this world."

With that, as everyone watched a bright light surrounded Madam boss and she and the light faded from the world. Leaving her to journey to places the others might only discover when it was their time.

Ash turned and faced Giovanni. "Dad?"

"Dad? I ... what are you people? What's happened? Ash, is that you?" Giovanni asked.

Ash nodded, "Yes Dad, it's me."

"How long has it been? You were only seven when I last remember you. You seem a lot older now," Giovanni said.

"I'm 14 now dad."

Giovanni hung his head. "Seven years. All those years of life gone. My reputation, everything destroyed. I feel worse than violated."

Ash took his father's hand, careful not to cut him with his claws. "We can help you Dad. We can show you what's happened to me and the others. Together we can to undo the damage that she did."

Giovanni looked into Ash's eyes. "I should see your mother again. There's so much for me to explain. So much catching up to do."

Ash nodded. "Yes, there is."

- - -

Sometime later, group had returned to the village with Giovanni and Persian. They'd taken Chris and the others to the Pokécenter. Nurse Joy was attending to Chris, who had the worst injuries of the group.

"Will he be all right?" Matthew asked.

"He'll recover, he just needs time," Joy said.

"I can't believe I've caused all of this. Seven years of my life ... gone," Giovanni said before sitting on a chair and looking at the ground

The group had told Joy his story but had been sure to keep his arrival in the village a secret.

"You don't remember any of the last seven years?" Joy asked.

"No. You know how some people say that it feels like only yesterday that something happened?" Giovanni asked.

Joy nodded.

"That statement rings true for me. From my point of view, my son was only seven years old and human a mere day ago And I too was a younger man," Giovanni said.

Ash put a comforting hand on Giovanni's hand. "I'm just glad you're back. Maybe we can help you recover the memories? We could also use the asteroid to change you. At least people won't be after you as they'll be looking for your human self."

Giovanni shook his head. "I can't just avoid responsibility for my actions."

"You didn't do those things, Dad. I don't want to lose you again," Ash said.

"We can offer you a home here. A chance to regain what you've lost," Matthew said.

Giovanni looked at Ash. "To become as all of you have become? For a trainer, to become one with them would be an honor. But, would the others accept me?"

"I would accept you," Ash said.

Misty walked into the reception area. "Chris is awake."

Chris had lost consciousness after re-gaining it for a short while when the group had convinced Madame Boss to move on. Ness had helped Chris sleep because Ness sensed that it would be easier on Chris if he slept. Giovanni had managed to find a vehicle to transport the group close enough to the village to carry Chris. However, they also disabled any and all trackers and parked the vehicle a decent distance from the village.

Misty had helped with Chris and the others.

"You have a thing for him or something?" Ash asked with a grin to show he was only joking.

"He needed help, that's all that mattered," Misty said.

"I need to see him. I feel that I owe him an apology," Giovanni said.

Giovanni stood and walked into the backroom where Alex was standing Giovanni said, looking at Alex. "If there's anything I do to make it up to then ask."

"What will become of your Persian?" Alex asked.

"If he wants to change, I believe he should have the opportunity," Ash said as he walked into the room.

"I hope Meowth doesn't get jealous," Misty said.

Jean Luc, who also entered the room, looked at the sleeping form of Persian. "What if he wants to stay a bad guy?"

"Won't he be loyal to you? If you tell him the truth, he might be willing to reform," Chris said.

"I hope so," Giovanni said.

"Do Jessie and James know the truth yet?" Ash asked Nurse Joy.

"I think Timothy and Peter are taking care of that," Joy replied.

About ten minutes later, Nurse Joy heard something happening in the reception area. She went back out to see that Timothy had brought Jessie, James and Meowth to the Pokécenter.

"You have the boss ... here?" Meowth asked.

"He'll kill us! You'll protect me, won't you Meowth?" Jessie said, leaping behind the holding Meowth.

"He'll say we're freaks!" James said.

Timothy shook his head at the hysterics.

"No, he's not going to call you freaks. I doubt he'll remember you," Timothy said.

When Giovanni walked into the reception area, Jessie, James and Meowth all ran up to him, all going onto their hands and knees.

"Please, forgive us boss!" Jessie said.

"We're not worthy," James said.

"Please, stand up," Giovanni said.

Jessie, unable to look Giovanni in the eye, kept her gaze to the floor. "Why don't you want us to grovel before you?"

Giovanni sighed. "Please, I am one that is not worthy of such treatment." Although they were reluctant, the trio arose. "Please, look me in the eyes. You don't need to fear me."

The trio complied. "That doesn't sound like da boss," Meowth said.

"That's because the person that you knew as your boss was not me," Giovanni said.

"I've told them the story," Timothy said.

"It's the truth. I am indeed the father of the boy whose Pikachu you've tried so hard to capture."

"Dat's impossible!" Meowth said.

"Look in a mirror Meowth. By now you should know that anything's possible," Timothy said.

"But if da boss isn't really da boss and he da father of the tw... Ash. 'Den what?" Meowth asked.

"I think that we can relax ... a bit. Some of my Pokémon have expressed an interest in using the Asteroid to change. I believe that Chris' have as well. Perhaps it's time we gave them the chance. We also need to find a way to move the Asteroid and protect it somehow. We can't risk other innocent people encountering it."

Nurse joy nodded. "By the way Tim, Chris is awake if you wanted to talk to him."

Timothy nodded, thanked Joy and walked into the back room. He asked for the other morphs to leave

"Tim, I ... I don't know what to say," Chris said

"How about starting with I'm sorry for abducting Ness?" Timothy said.

Chris hung his head. "You know I didn't abduct him. I just got so excited about playing catch with him that I forgot to write you a note. Still though, I'm sorry for taking him without first asking you."

Timothy sighed. "All right, that's a start. What if they'd Ness or done worse to you? For all we knew, they knew about us and had a way to make you a normal Furret. How do you think I'd feel if they had and sold you to someone and I never heard from you again?"

Chris sighed. "Maybe you'd be happy. A lot of people seem to think I'm annoying. I ... can't help it. I just get these urges and sometimes have so much energy that I think I'm going to go crazy!"

"I would not be happy! If they find you annoying, maybe it's because they're not used to it. There are ways to control these urges or to find other means of using your energy. Maybe you could help me with the construction of some homes. Even if you can't lift a lot, there are other things you can do," Timothy said.

"Yeah, I guess I could give it a try," Chris said.

"Great, so, we've been thinking. Maybe if Giovanni decides to change, it might be a good time for Whiskers and Jack to change if they'd like to," Timothy said.

"I think they'd like that. Do you think that Ness and the others will want to change? Ness would probably be handsome as a morph," Chris said.

"That's a good question," Timothy said

"Here's another one. Does the Village know about Giovanni being here or the truth about him?" Chris asked.

"Jessie, James and Meowth know. I think the others have a right to know," Timothy said.

When Timothy walked back into the reception area, he saw Ash and Giovanni talking.

"Ah Tim. Is everything okay?" Ash asked.

Timothy nodded.

"That's good to hear. Guess what, my Dad has decided to change!" Ash said.

Giovanni nodded "You guys liberated me from that existence. Who knows what might have happened had you not been there."

"I'm glad we were able to help," Timothy said.

Timothy realized that perhaps he didn't mean to be as upset with Chris. If Chris hadn't of taken Ness then Timothy and the others would never have heard Ness' cry for help and Giovanni would still be at the base under Madame Boss' control. Perhaps Timothy wondered, sometimes, things did happen for a reason.

- - -

A little while later, Giovanni stood close to the asteroid.

"How does it determine species?" Giovanni asked.

"I don't know. It seems to choose just whatever," Ash said.

"I see. Well, let's get this done. No sense in me waiting around until I get cold feet," Giovanni said.

Despite what he'd said, Giovanni was nervous. It was enough that he'd just regained his freedom and his son. However, knowing that his son was now a Human/Pokémon hybrid was enough to make Giovanni decide to change himself. Giovanni knew that Ash would consider it an honor to become one of the creatures he so loved, hence why Ash likely would not change back even if he had the choice.

Giovanni approached the asteroid and looked own into the crater that contained it. It had a slight glow to it. Being close to it made Giovanni feel dizzy.

The entire surface of his skin began to itch. Giovanni scratched his arms and then at the front of his shirt. Then, his clothes felt tight. Powerful coursed through his body. He touched his face and felt that his skin was becoming harder.

His shirt started to rip open from the middle of the front and down, revealing skin that was turning a shade of grey. Giovanni gasped, he felt more energetic and despite what was happening to his skin, he somehow knew that it looked younger, closer to what he'd have looked like if this had happened to him seven years ago.

Warm flowed through Giovanni's face. He grimmest and looked up at the sky, closing his eyes. His jaw and nose bone cracked and started to reshape.

Giovanni felt his hair falling out. He reached to the top of his head, feeling the tough armored skin in place of his hair. His jaw pushed out and his nose moved to the front of what was becoming his muzzle.

Giovanni felt and heard his shirt tear as the skin on his arms and torso thickened further into armored plates. The pain his face subsided and Giovanni opened his eyes. He held out his arms, seeing their armor. His hands, while still more or less hands, had fingers shorter fingers that were tipped with white claws. Giovanni felt something else growing from his muzzle as the skin on his legs tingled. He looked as best as he could with his eyes and saw a horn start to emerge from close to the tip of the muzzle.

Another tearing of fabric and Giovanni watched his pants almost disintegrate as the skin on his legs changed from skin to armored skin and then to plated armor. Giovanni however, didn't feel naked.

When what he knew was his horn finished growing, his feet tingled. He looked down to see his toes disappear into hoof life endings to his feet complete with small white nails where his toes would be.

Taking a deep breath, Giovanni felt as though the process was complete. A quick survey of his body told him that he was a Ryhorn. A ground type like his son.

He turned around to see Ash watching him as Ash's Phanpy, now a morph like Ash, hugged him. Behind Ash were other morphs that'd also changed. Whiskers stood close to Chris. She was shorter than him and seemed to regard him as a protector, perhaps Giovanni wondered, as a father. Jack looked confident and admired his new body, all while appearing to be looking out for Whiskers. Timothy stood next to other fighting types, as well as A Dragonite, a Blastoise, a Mightyena, a Luxray and a few other Pokémon of his that were all now morphed. In front of the group was an Espeon who still wore the baseball cap.

Giovanni walked over to Ash.

"Dad, you look good," Ash said.

"I feel GOOD, younger. It seems that who or whatever is responsible for this has given me back those years that I've lost," Giovanni said.

"I'm glad you're okay and that you've decided to join us," Giovanni said.

Chris looked at Timothy. "Looks like we're going to have a lot of building to do."

Timothy grinned. "Also looks like we'll have a use for all that energy of yours."

- - -

A while later, as the sun was setting; Chris was standing outside of his house with Alex, who was greeting Whiskers and Jack.

"So, how does it feel to be like us?" Alex asked.

"I feel confident. I know I'm good looking, I can see the way the girls look at me," Jack said. He put a winged arm around Whiskers. "But you're still my little sister and I'll make sure to keep you safe."

Whiskers turned toward Ash and Misty, who were standing there. "Thank you for rescuing us back there."

Ash smiled and nodded. "Thank you. If it wasn't for all of this, we'd have never freed my father."

Peter floated by.

"I wish I could shake your hand. You saved my dad," Ash said.

"I'm just glad I could help. By the way Chris, Nurse Joy has something she wants to give to Alex," Peter said.

Chris nodded and he walked with Alex, Whiskers and Jack. Chris used Alex for some support as he was still sore and recovering but had wanted to be there when Whiskers and the others changed.

Giovanni walked into the area. He wobbled a little as he walked as he was still getting used to his new body.

"I never had the chance to properly thank you Peter," Giovanni said.

"Knowing that I could help both you and Ash is thank you enough," Peter said.

"By the way, have you seen my Persian? He said he wanted to talk to someone but I'm not sure who," Giovanni said.

Peter's Sableye Nina floated over to the group. "So, are we going to play or what?"

"Looks like she's ... dying for some fun Pete," Misty said.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

"Don't stop on our account," Ash said.

"Besides, I think Ash wants to come with me anyway," Misty said, winking.

On the other side of the village, Persian, (who had become a handsome Persian morph) stood face to face with Meowth. Jessie was behind Meowth and frowning at Persian.

"I know that we've been rivals. My father was wrong when he would compare you to me. However, I've come to learn that the person I thought was my father ... wasn't," Persian said.

Meowth stood in front of Jessie, trying to stand as tall as possible. "She's my mate yous ain't takin' her away."

"I'm not going to take away your mate. Perhaps, we could make amends. Maybe even be friends in time?" Persian said.

Meowth looked suspicious. "I don't know."

"Besides, there's a Rapidash who seems intriguing. If her temper is as fiery as her mane..."

Jessie recoiled. "Meowth is the only man that I care about."

Persian held out a hand, causing both Meowth and Jessie to flinch. "Perhaps not yet but I'd like to think that some day we can be friends."

"Well," Meowth said, giving himself several seconds to think. "I can give it a try."

Meowth held out his hands and he and Persian shook hands.

Meanwhile, Timothy was standing near the center of town. He watched Chris, Alex, Jack and Whiskers walk into the Pokémon centre.

"I wonder what that's all about." Timothy asked.

Ness, who stood in front of Timothy, beside Ryu - Timothy's Dragonite, smiled.

"I believe that as you might say it, he's up to no good," Ness said.

"I hope he takes good care of Whiskers. She sees him as a father," Timothy said. He shook his head. "Chris as a father, there's a scary idea."

"Perhaps, but if we learn to trust him, things will work out," Ness said.

"Besides, he has Alex to help him out," Ryu said.

"Are you and Jack going to want to fly together?" Timothy asked.

"We just might," Ryu said.

Kame-sama the Blastoise walked over the group. "I'm not going to have to douse him again am I?"

Timothy shook his head but kept his smile. "I don't think Chris will be crazy enough to ask for a Blastoise shower again." He looked at Ness. "You're not going to want to play catch with him again are you?"

Ness shook his head. "Not after what happened."

Meanwhile, Matthew was in front of his house talking to Sparkie, who'd decided to stay a normal Pikachu. Jean Luc was with them.

"Are you sure you don't want to change?" Matthew asked.

Sparkie nodded. "I'm sure. Jean Luc's my friend but I like being a Pikachu. Besides, I'm more unique here now. I enjoy our friendship as it is. You've always been like a father to me and I love sitting on your shoulder."

"I miss being able to do that with Ash," Jean Luc said.

Matthew picked Sparkie up and gave him a hug. "If you want to stay this way then that's fine with me."

"Thank you," Sparkie said.

In the Pokécenter, Nurse Joy spoke with Alex.

"Over the past year, I've been working on a way to allow Alexandra to stay outside during the day without suffering as a result. I've tested the tissue and blood samples she's given me recently with a solution I came up with and I'm happy to say that it's worked!"

Chris looked at Alex.

"She didn't want to say what she needed them for. She assured me that I wasn't ill but didn't want to get my hopes up. At first I thought it was a cure but she only wanted samples from me."

Joy nodded. "All I need to give you is an IV of the solution. You'll need to spend the night here. However, once it's done, you'll be able to go outside as well as any other non dark type. Now, it's important to know that this will only work on dark type morphs so far. Perhaps if we end up with more we can use it on them if they want it," Joy said.

Alex hugged Joy. "Thank you Nurse. This is going to be a lifesaver for me."

Joy hung her head. "I just wish I'd have given it to you earlier. It would have saved you a lot of pain."

"It's all right," Alex said.

"Chris, I'll need to run a few more tests to make sure you're all right and healing properly. Whiskers and Jack can stay here while you two are here," Joy said.

"All right," Chris said.

Meanwhile, Ash and Giovanni had approached Maybel and Evergreen. Phanpy was staying close behind Giovanni, watching the trio with fascination.

"We're going to need a way to move the asteroid so no one else ends up accidently changed because of it," Ash said.

Evergreen rubbed his chin and nodded.

"Even with our combined forces we've been unable move it. We're going to need someone powerful. I'm talking legendary level powerful. Even once we get it here, we'll need to contain it somehow," Evergreen said.

Maybel smiled and looked at Ash. "Is there anyone you might be able to ask?"

Ash gave it some thought. "Come to think of it, there is _**someone**_..."

- - -

Deliah hadn't of heard from Ash in a few months and she'd been getting worried. She normally kept track of Ash via a GPS tracking chip she'd had Oak install in it Ash's pokédex. It had shown her that Ash had been stationary over the past few weeks.

Being the concerned mother that she was, Deliah knew that she had to investigate!

She walked over to Oak's house and knocked on the door. When Oak answered, Deliah explained the situation to him.

"That's unusual even for Ash," Oak said.

Deliah gasped. "What if something's happened to him?"

Oak put a comforting hand on Deliah's back and led her into his house. Inside, he took her into the kitchen and prepared some green tea for her to help to calm her nerves.

"He never goes this long with calling me! What if someone captured him? He could be hurt or worse!" Deliah said.

"I wouldn't worry, Ash has proven time and again that he can take care of himself," Oak said.

Deliah nodded as she took a sip of tea. "Can you find exactly where Ash is? I want to check up on him to make sure he's all right. I know it would embarrass him but I'd rather that happen and know he's all right then not do anything and find out that something was wrong."

Oak led Deliah to a back room that had computers. He took her to one that showed Ash's current location or at least the location of his Pokédex.

"That isn't too far from here. I wonder what could be wrong." Oak said.

"We should go there. Something must be wrong. I just know it!" Deliah said.

"Try and stay calm. Panicking won't make things better. Look, I can send Gary and Tracey with you if you like to search that area," Oak said.

"Can't you come?" Deliah asked.

Oak shook his head. "I have important matters to attend to." Deliah frowned. "That's not that say that this isn't important"

"All right. But I thought that Gary and Ash hated each other?" Deliah asked.

"They're rivals, that's all. You know how kids are," Oak said.

"I wish Ash could spend more time at home. Maybe I'd know better. So, how are we going to get there?" Deliah said.

Ten minutes later, Oak, Gary, Tracey and Deliah were standing outside. Gary was holding three Pokéball.

"So, you want me to fly over to some place that Ash has been hanging around for who knows how long so his Mom can make sure that Ash is okay?" Gary asked.

"I want you to fly the three of you over there to see if Ash is okay," Oak said.

"I'd love to see Ash again. There's a lot of stuff I've drawn that I could show him," Tracey said.

"I just want to make sure he's all right," Deliah said.

"Okay, okay," Gary said.

Gary released the three Pokémon that were in the balls, a Fearow, Pidgeot and a Gyarados. Gary boarded the Gyarados, Deliah the Pidgeot and Tracey and Fearow.

"Be careful. If there is something dangerous there, I don't want you guys getting hurt," Oak said.

"Don't worry with me to protect you guys, nothing can go wrong!" Gary said.

Deliah didn't bother to comment while Tracey rolled his eyes. The three flying types took to the sky. They flew for almost two hours before they landed close to where Oak's computer had said Ash's pokédex was.

"Ash are you there?" Deliah said. There was no response. "He must be around here somewhere!"

Gary recalled the three Pokémon and followed with Tracey as Deliah walked through the woods, calling Ash's name.

They walked until Deliah gasped. She'd found Ash's clothes on the ground. They were torn. There were two other sets of clothes there, both torn as well.

Deliah picked up Ash's clothes and gasped.

"Something's happened to him!" Deliah said.

"Maybe's he's finally lost it and decided to run around naked," Gary said.

"That's not funny!" Tracey said.

Deliah felt dizzy. At first, she thought it was because she was upset. However, when she noticed that there was a hole in the ground with something inside of it glowing, she was worried that something was wrong.

Gary and Tracey walked closer and both gasped as Deliah stood up.

"What's wrong?" Deliah asked.

"Something's pushing at the back of your dress," Gary said.

Come to think of it, Deliah had felt something pushing back there. But, as far as she knew, that couldn't be. She learned that what was and was not possible was not in sync with reality when she heard a rip of her undergarments followed by a large tail pushing the back of her dress up.

Looking back, Deliah saw the brown skinned appendage. She looked at it with curiosity.

_Is that mine? Of course it isn't! One of the boys played a prank on me! People don't grow tails!_

Deliah turned around and put her hands on her hips. "This is no time for tricks! We have to find out what's happened to Ash!"

Her skin began to crawl, the sensation feeling like a thousand ants were walking about her skin!

"Did you guys put itching powder on me?" Deliah asked.

Gary and Tracey looked at each other then back at Deliah.

"N...no, you're skin is getting darker! It's like you stepped into a tanning salon!" Tracey said.

"Don't tell me you want to draw her!" Gary said.

"What are you boys talking about?" Deliah asked.

Deliah noticed that Tracey's eyes now had rings around them! He also seemed to have sprouted a hat similar to the ones artists wore. _Now where did that come from?_

"When did you paint your face and put that hat on?" Deliah asked.

"What are you talking about?" Tracey asked.

Gary started backing up as he held his hands out. Deliah was growing concerned. She could feel the tail! It was like it was a part of her. She reached around and touched it and noticed that the skin on her arms did look tanned! Her shoes were feeling tight as her legs were tingling. When she looked at Tracey, she noticed that white hair was growing all over his face and that he now had floppy ears in place of his normal ones.

"How did you...? What's going on?" Deliah asked.

Deliah saw that Gary's had grown a pair of horns, his face was growing longer somehow and that black hair (or perhaps, she wondered ... fur) was sprouting all over Gary's arms!

_Ash, what if this happened to Ash?_

"Ash, oh no! Did you turn into a Pokémon? Are you okay?" Deliah asked.

"What are you talking about? I ... what is that thing back there?" Tracey asked.

Deliah watched Tracey fumbled with his pants. She had to look away as she didn't want to get into trouble for looking at something she wasn't allowed to see. Gary was standing closest to the hole in the ground. Deliah saw that Gary had black for on most of his face with brown on his jaw (which by now was longer). He was scratching at his shirt. Deliah saw Gary's nails were growing and wondered if he'd just gone too long with cutting them. Yet, they looked more like claws then nails. They were even tearing Gary's shirt apart!

"It's okay, you can look at me. It's not like you can see anything. Oh my God this is ... impossible. I have to sketch this; I have to show it to someone!" Tracey said.

Deliah took a quick peek and then turned around. Tracey had removed his pants and was holding a tail that looked like that of a Smeargle. It was Tracey's tail! Not only that but he seemed to lack any need to wear clothes anymore!

"Oh dear!" Deliah said.

Deliah's jaw began to ache. Her feet felt so tight that she had to get her shoes off. With hands that Deliah now noticed had white claws at the tips of her fingers, she managed to slip her shoes off. The loss of her shoes was almost like a cue for her feet.

Her feet tore through her socks, developing into strong three toed feet with well tanned skin. Deliah felt around her face. It felt longer like Gary's. She wonders what the rest of her looked like but would never remove her clothing in public or around guys that weren't her husband.

Deliah turned to see Gary had scratched his shirt off. She knew it wasn't proper to look but was too curious to look away. She knew that this could have happened to Ash and felt that it might be a clue to finding him.

Gary's chest was covered beige fur with black on his back and sides. With a gasp, Deliah saw that Gary had a long black tail with what looked like an arrowhead on the tip.

"Dear me, what are we becoming?" Deliah asked.

Deliah seemed to accept that what she was seeing was indeed possible. When Gary began to scratch at his pants, Deliah had to look away.

Tracey still had his shirt on and had looking down it via the top of it. From what Deliah saw, white fur covered Tracey head to toe. When he'd finished looking down his chest, he took a hold of his tail, gazing at it with fascination

"I'm a Smeargle, but I'm different. I think you're a Kangaskhan, Mrs. Ketchum," Tracey said.

Deliah felt her blouse. She seemed to have a pouch under her clothes but she still wasn't willing to take them off even if her tail was pushing her dress up enough as to be annoying.

"Arg, I'm a Houndoom!" Gary said.

Deliah turned and saw Gary clutching onto what was left of his pants!

"This must have happened to Ash," Deliah said.

"But where did he go afterwards?" Tracey asked.

Deliah looked around and heard what sounded like someone approaching.

"I think someone's coming. Maybe it's Ash!"

"What if it's someone coming to capture us?" Gary asked.

"I could always offer to draw them a picture instead!" Tracey said.

Deliah waited with anticipation. She watched a Furret and Sneasel morph walked into the area holding hands and looking at each other and smiling.

"Wha ... hello," the Furret said.

"Hi," Deliah said.

"Did you guys just change?" The Sneasel asked.

"Yes!" Tracey said.

"Have you guys seen my son Ash? I went looking for him and this happened to us!" Deliah said.

"Ash, as in Ash Ketchum? You're his mother?" the Sneasel asked.

Deliah beamed. "Yes! Do you know where he is? Is he all right? Is he wearing clean underwear?"

"I err ... we don't ask him about that because we um," the Sneasel said.

"Oh I'm sorry. We're you two going to hug and kiss or read to each other?" Deliah asked.

Gary grinned. "Or something else?" he asked.

"No, we um, we just going for a walk," the Furret said.

"Yes and to answer your questions. Yes, your son is fine. He's nearby and underwear isn't a problem for him. Not that we'd ask about that," the Sneasel said.

"Please I have to see him! I... oh no but I'm a Kangaskhan! I don't want to scare him!" Deliah said.

"Miss Ketchum, I don't think that will be much of a problem," The Sneasel said.

"By the way, my name is Chris and this is Alex. How about we show you to our village?" Chris asked.

"Yes, please. Show me where Ash is!" Deliah said.

Deliah followed Chris and Alex through the woods as Chris told her the story of the Meteor and their village. Disbelief was Deliah's first reaction. Denial was her second. Despite what had happened to her body, she didn't feel as though she were a Kangaskhan. Her plans were to find Ash, get back to being human and go home.

Gary walked ahead of Deliah and beside Alex.

"Hello," he said.

"Need something?" Alex asked.

Gary grinned, cracked his knuckles and flexed his arms.

"So, um, you're a Sneasel," Gary said.

"Yes?" Alex asked.

"You can stay out during the day?" Gary asked.

"No, I'm using a physic type to project an image of myself. Of course I can stay outside during the day... duh," Alex said.

"Gary, I don't think that she's interested," Deliah said.

Gary smiled, shook his head and put his arm around Alex's shoulders.

"We're both dark types. I'm not afraid of the dark," Gary said.

"Hey now," Chris said.

Alex looked at Chris and winked at him before looking into Gary's eyes. "You should be."

With a single swing of her right hand, she knocked Gary to the ground. The group stopped walking, all of them looking down at Gary.

"Feisty!" Gary said.

"Um Gary, I think she's trying to say that she's taken," Tracey said.

"Okay, okay, I get the picture," Gary said.

Chris offered a hand to help Gary up. Gary grunted but took it anyway.

"Now, why don't we get back to the village?" Alex asked.

The group resumed walking. After a short while, they entered the village. Deliah looked around in awe. There were houses and even a street. Other humanoid Pokémon walked about the streets. Deliah wondered if one of them was Ash.

"Where is Ash? What does he look like now?" Deliah asked.

In truth, a part of Deliah expected to find a human Ash among the poképeople. A Rapidash woman walked by, followed by a Tauros man, who much to Deliah's embarrassment, wore only a loincloth.

"Oh dear," Deliah said.

"Oh, that's Tony Lisk. I know his choice of attire is skimpy but you'll get used to it. Heck, up until recently rather than a shirt, I never wore anything," Chris said.

"You mean, you were ... naked?" Deliah asked.

"I have my fur. We've had to adjust our sense of modesty somewhat. However, most of us wear at least something if we can," Chris said.

A pair of Pikachu walked by, a male and female.

"Ah, perfect," Chris said.

"How is that perfect? Who are they?" Deliah asked.

"Jean Luc!" Chris said.

The two Pikachu walked over to the group. The male wore an outfit that reminded Deliah of Ash's. The female wore a black tee-shirt and jeans. She had yellow hair that she'd tied into a ponytail.

"New friends?" Jean Luc asked.

"Dana, could you go find Ash? He's going to want to see these three," Chris said.

"I'll go with you. This is something that I think needs two people to break," Alex said.

"Okay," Dana said.

Alex and Dana ran off, leaving Jean Luc looking confused.

"Jean Luc. Do you recognize any of these people?" Chris asked.

"No ... wait. That dress. It looks like..."

"Ash has an adorable Pikachu. You two should meet!" Deliah said.

Jean Luc looked surprised.

"Jean Luc. This is Ash's mom, Gary Oak and Tracey Sketchit. It seems they came looking for Ash and it seems they found the asteroid first.

"M-Mrs. Ketchum?" Jean Luc asked.

"Mrs. Ketchum, this Pikachu _**IS**_ Ash's. His name is Jean Luc," Chris said.

"No way!" Gary said.

"That's Pikachu? Wow, he looks so cool. I need to sketch him!" Tracey said.

"That's Tracey all right. A Smeargle of all things," Jean Luc said.

"You have a girlfriend?" Deliah said.

"Well, Dana and I are just friends," Jean Luc said.

"That's great! So, when are you two getting married? Have you planned the wedding yet? Does she have a dress?" Deliah asked.

"Um well..."

The group heard someone walking towards them. Deliah looked to see what looked like a pair of Sandslash walk up to her. The male was wearing a hat that looked like Ash's.

"Mom, is that you?" The Sandslash asked.

Deliah cocked her head. Why was the Sandslash calling her Mom? Could it be, she wondered? That Sandslash was Ash? That was impossible or at least unlikely. She's seen all these other Pokémon people but seeing Ash as one was a bit much. What was worse was that he wasn't wearing anything other than the hat! _He'll catch a cold or something! I have to make him a sweater that will fit over those quills!_

"Ash? I hear you but, where are you?" Deliah asked.

"I'm right here Mom," Ash said.

"Um guys, why I don't show you around the village so they can have some privacy," Chris said.

Gary and Tracey nodded.

"Must be lots of interesting people to draw!" Tracey said.

Ash watched as Chris walked away with Gary and Tracey.

"You're a Sandslash?" Deliah asked.

"And you're a Kangaskhan," Ash said.

Deliah ran over to Ash, holding her arms out as though she wanted to give him a hug.

"Mom, wait, you'll get hurt," Ash said. He looked at the other Sandslash, who rolled her eyes.

"Ash, give your mother a hug!"

Ash did so. When he released it, he took a few steps back.

"I was so worried about you! I still am! Are you okay? Are these people nice?" Deliah asked.

"They're fine Mom," Ash said.

"So, who is your friend?" Deliah asked.

"That's Misty! We're sort of ... a couple now," Ash said.

Misty shook Deliah's hand, both smiling.

"You're a couple? When are you getting married? Have you picked out a gown? Oh, Ash, you're going to need a Tux! We'll have to get one just for you," Deliah said.

"Um Mom, we're not getting married just yet," Ash said.

"So Mrs. Ketchum. You know, you don't have to keep your dress on if you don't want to," Misty said.

"Misty!" Ash said.

Despite the fact that Ash's mother was now a Kangaskhan lady. He didn't want to see her running around naked!

"Oh no, Dear, I can't do that. It wouldn't be proper!" Deliah said.

"Hey Ash, maybe you should tell her about you know who," Jean Luc said.

"Who?" Deliah asked.

"Well, we kind met someone and say Mom, is it just me or do you look younger?" Ash said.

Deliah smiled. "Why thank you Ash." her expression then turned solemn. "I feel better, more like I was right before your father left us. I wish I knew why he did. Things were going great before then... Who is you know who?"

Ash took a deep breath and asked Deliah to sit down on a nearby rock. Deliah did so, looking at Ash. After preparing himself, he told Deliah the truth about what had happened with Chris, Alex and Giovanni. When he mentioned that Madame Boss had taken control of Giovanni's body, Deliah shuddered.

"So, that's why he left us! But if he's himself then I need to see him!" Deliah said.

When Deliah stood up, she almost fainted. Her entire life was spiraling out of control. She become a Pokémon person and then had found out that Ash had experienced the same fate. Now, she'd found out about her husband! All of those years ago, her life had fallen apart. Her plans had gone to heck. Now it seemed they could start over from where they left off. However, none of them were human any more.

Ash ran over to help Deliah. "Mom is everything okay?"

"Yes, I ... this is all so new, that's all," Deliah said.

Ash led Deliah to where Giovanni was staying. She knocked on the door, a series of images and scenarios went though Deliah's mind. A part of her feared that Giovanni would renounce her in her current form. Another part of her wondered if she could continue her relationship after seven years. Times had changed and she'd changed as well. When the door opened and the humanoid Ryhorn stood there before her, Deliah gazed into his eyes. She found them to be the same as she'd remembered for all of these years.

"Dad, I know this is going to sound hard to believe," Ash said.

"At this point, I'm ready to believe anything," Giovanni said.

"This is Mom. She came looking for me and..."

Giovanni looked into Deliah's eyes. To the outside world, the two of them would seem locked, as though time had stopped for them.

"Deliah is that really you?" Giovanni said.

Deliah nodded. "Giovanni, is that _you_?"

"Yes. I know my appearance is ... odd, but it is me," Giovanni said.

Deliah saw sincerity into Giovanni's eyes. Years of pain, longing and worry began to melt away. Any worry that she couldn't forgive him faded. No matter what they looked like or what the future held, Deliah felt that they could finally be together again. She drew closer to Giovanni, putting her arms around him. The sensation was different but the feeling was the same. It was as though the last seven years had never happened and they'd only seen each other yesterday. Giovanni copied Deliah's gesture and they embraced each other in a kiss. If this chapter in the story of their lives had been a musical, this moment would have been a crescendo. It lasted, growing louder until it reached a climax. The pain was gone, any sense of worry over their future evaporated and two were once again one.

They withdrew, both smiling.

"I guess the question now is what comes next" Deliah said.

"I'm sure we can think of something," Giovanni said.

Ash felt happiness, Ash felt ecstatic. If happiness was a blade of grass, what Ash felt was a Meadow bursting with life. If a year ago, he'd found this was going to happen to him, he'd have never believed it. Now, much like a club one joins that initially they aren't aware of or feel they can do without, he couldn't imagine things being any different. He and Misty embraced each other in a kiss of their own and at that moment, all seemed well in the world.

Sometime later, Ash, Timothy and Ness were sitting on a bench in the centre of town. Ash believed that Mewtwo could move the asteroid to a safe location in the town. After Ash proposed the idea to the others, Timothy had suggested contacting Mewtwo through Ness.

"I will need to access your mind so I can have an idea of what to look for," Ness said.

Ash nodded. "All right but don't look everywhere okay?"

Ness smiled. "I won't invade your privacy. Try to think of this friend of yours. Concentrate on him as best as you can."

Ash did so, doing his best to recall the memories he had of Mewtwo, including the painful ones. Ness tilted his head. Ash felt a presence in his mind. It was on some levels, similar to debating a decision that he was divided on. However, this presence felt as though a whole new side to the argument, one Ash hadn't of considered was coaching him. Then it felt as though he were telling Ness of what he was thinking. Had Ash had less experience in life he may have panicked? However, after all he'd been though, he knew that he was going to be all right.

As soon as it began, it was over. Ash gasped and blinked his eyes.

Ness nodded his head. "Fascinating."

"You okay Ness?" Timothy asked.

"Yes. This is just difficult for me. Connecting to another's mind to read their thoughts is much more difficult than sending those words," Ness said.

"What do you do next?" Ash asked.

"This next part is even more difficult. I must seek out the mind of this one and attempt to contact him. He may resist me. Ash, if you are willing, I can send some of your thoughts, he may trust me more if he knows I've touched your mind," Ness said.

"All right," Ash said.

Ness held out his hands, beckoning Ash to take them. Ash complied and Ness closed his eyes, Ash following suit. Ash felt a sense of panic. It was as though he were falling into an ocean and needed to find a single drop. Something that Ash could only assume was Ness assured Ash to stay calm. The sense of falling became one of swimming. Ash sensed that the voice they were after had hidden itself well. He and Ness swam in search of it. If it were only Ness searching, the voice would have stayed hidden. However, Ash's presence acted like a lighthouse turning on a light that pinpointed the voices location.

Now Ash felt as though he were in a tunnel surrounded by a whirlwind of chaos. Thoughts and feelings assaulted him. Ash felt as though he were telling the chaos of the information he needed to convey to it. When he felt as though they'd succeeded, their link was lost

As soon as it had begun, it was over and Ash was back with Ness in the village square.

"Are you guys all right?" Timothy asked.

"Yes, I think so," Ash asked.

"It worked. Your friend has agreed to come here. Now, I need to rest," Ness said.

Ash felt apprehension but was happy that their telepathic link had worked.

"You sure you're all right? I'm sorry if that hurt you," Ash said.

"I'm just tired, that's all. I will recover," Ness said.

Ness and Timothy stood up. Timothy led Ness back to their house so he could get some rest. Ash stayed in the town center to wait for Mewtwo to arrive.

Mewtwo arrived minutes later, floating down to Ash's position.

"I hope this is important, I was calculating pi to a billion decimal places," Mewtwo said.

"Really?" Ash asked.

"No. Now, please tell me. Who and what are you? Another experiment that escaped from some lab?" Mewtwo asked.

"It's me ... Ash," Ash said.

"I am the one that summoned you. The creature before you is indeed the boy you knew," Ness said.

Mewtwo frowned and his eyes glowed. Ash felt lightheaded and experienced the same sensations he had with Ness. He knew that Mewtwo knew all that Ash knew about the village.

"Indeed," Mewtwo said.

"Then you know that we need a favor from you. We need you to move the asteroid to the centre of town," Ash said.

"Yes, it is indeed a threat in its current location. I will comply with your request," Mewtwo said.

"Thank you," Ash said.

"Will the asteroid affect you?" Ness asked.

"I do not know. Unfortunately, there is only one way to find out," Mewtwo asked.

Soon after, Ash was standing in the woods and watching as Mewtwo stood before the crater.

"I should be able to lift it. No one else will have to endure it changing them again," Mewtwo said.

Ash watched as Mewtwo used his psychic ability to raise the asteroid. Dust and dirt fell from the asteroid as Mewtwo raised it from the crater. With a heave, he started to walk back towards the village with Ash following.

Initially, it appeared as though the asteroid didn't affect Mewtwo. However, Ash noticed that Mewtwo appeared to be developing muscles over his arms and legs. Before Ash could say anything, Mewtwo looked back at him.

"I feel stronger. It would appear that this asteroid does affect me," Mewtwo said.

Ash felt a sense of awe as Mewtwo continued to carry the asteroid despite its effects on him. As they walked, every so often, Ash would receive a sensation of strength and confidence. He was a feeling those sensations were coming from Mewtwo, who Ash noticed seemed to be getting stronger. Ash was both impressed and nervous at the same time.

"I sense your apprehension. I assure you that I will not be a threat to you or your people," Mewtwo said.

When they arrived in the village, other villagers watched the scene with awe.

Professor Evergreen and Maybel approached the duo.

"You found a way to lift the asteroid! But how?" Evergreen asked.

"Who are you? I don't recognize your species," Maybel asked.

"It's okay ... he's a friend," Ash said.

While they kept their distance, several of the villagers followed behind Ash and Mewtwo as Mewtwo carried the asteroid close to the centre of town where there was some open space.

"We'll have to build a house around it. Something to shield the outside world from its effects. I'm glad you've found a way to move it. This will no doubt save a lot of people a lot of trouble," Evergreen said.

With precision, Mewtwo lowered the asteroid to the ground. Ash noticed that Mewtwo looked a lot stronger now. It was as though Mewtwo had been exercising for weeks or even months.

"Thank you my friend for your help. But, who are you?" Evergreen asked.

"I ... prefer to remain anonymous. I give you my word that I will not threaten your village. I would like to learn about whom you people are that Ash considers being friends," Mewtwo said.

"It's a long story," Evergreen said.

"If you'd like to stay, we'd be willing to tell it to you," Maybel said.

"Do you have anywhere to stay?" Evergreen asked.

"I live everywhere and nowhere. I will prevail I assure you," Mewtwo said.

"I sense your loneliness. We could help you to make a home for yourself here," Ness said.

"We know what it's like to be different. I don't know if we'll ever be able to go back to society as we are now," Evergreen said.

"We would love to get to know you. Perhaps, learn more about you," Maybel said.

"It would be nice to have a place where I belong," Mewtwo said.

"Then ... why not? Life isn't that bad here," Ash said.

"All right. I will stay for the time being," Mewtwo said.

"That's great!" Ash said.

Evergreen looked at the asteroid. "First, we need to build something around that."

"Then we'll need to introduce you to everyone and build a home for you," Ash said.

"I am unaccustomed to affection. However, I believe that I am ready to start learning to accept it," Mewtwo said.

With that the group prepared to accept the latest member of their village as well as put an end to the asteroid changing innocent people. Ash had been reunited with his parents, and it looked like things were settling down and things were going to work out.

- - -

Mewtwo sensed a disturbance in the village. There was someone there that was familiar to him yet somehow also different.

"I know another here," Mewtwo said.

"Who?" Ash asked.

"He is connected to you," Mewtwo said.

"But the only ones connected to me here are my friends, Mom and ... Dad," Ash gasped.

Mewtwo sensed the memories from Ash. He knew that he had to confront the one responsible.

He rushed towards the house where Giovanni lived. After knocking on the door, he stood and waited.

Giovanni answered a minute later. His form was different then Mewtwo expected. However, Mewtwo could sense Giovanni's mind. However, something was different about it. It was as though there was something missing. When Mewtwo had been close to Giovanni before, he'd sensed a duality. Now, Mewtwo was starting to understand that something was going on.

"Hello, do I know you? I don't recognize your species," Giovanni said.

Frowning, Mewtwo remained calm. "You do not remember me?"

Giovanni was shocked and scared at the same time, Mewtwo could sense it. The man's emotions were strong enough that if he were speaking them, he would have been yelling.

"No, should I?" Giovanni asked. He hung his head and sighed. "I'm sorry; I am trying to piece together the last seven years of my life. It is difficult to explain."

Mewtwo was angry. Giovanni forgetting was almost like one denying a terrible crime and going on with their life as though they never committed it! However, Giovanni's emotions didn't betray his words. Mewtwo's sensed Giovanni's confusion and shame.

"There is something I am unaware of," Mewtwo said.

Giovanni sighed. "If I have harmed me in any way then I'm sorry. I know words cannot change what I did while under my mother's influence. However I will do what I can do make amends."

"I do not understand. Open your mind and I will be able to," Mewtwo said.

"You're a psychic type?" Giovanni said.

Mewtwo surprised the urge to scream. From his point of view, this was the same as a victim of a terrible assault encountering his assaulter who happened to be suffering from amnesia. The victim, still bearing the scars of the assault listening to his attacker asking about said scars would not only open old emotional wounds but would feel like an insult.

"Yes, I am," Mewtwo said.

Ash and Ness ran up to the duo, both appearing tired.

"Mewtwo! Wait, I can explain," Ash said.

"I believe that someone owes me an explanation. As I said, open your mind," Mewtwo said.

Giovanni nodded and closed his eyes. Ash did the same. Mewtwo sensed what had transpired with Giovanni's mother. Soon, those memories were a part of him and he knew what Ash and Giovanni knew about the incident as clearly as though Mewtwo had been through it himself.

"I understand," Mewtwo said.

"I wish you no harm. I just want to get on with my life and to repair the damage my mother did to this world," Giovanni said.

"Your feelings of violation are similar to my own. However, it seems that we share something in common. Your mother used us both. However, we both owe our existence to her," Mewtwo said.

"As do I," Ash said.

Mewtwo nodded. "If I am to stay here I must take on a new identity."

Ash seemed to think about it for a minute. "How does the name Mike sound? Mike Newman?"

"It is acceptable," Mewtwo said.

"Dad, maybe you should use a new name as well. People might be after you. At least now, if you're name is different, they might not know," Ash said.

Giovanni nodded. "What name would you suggest?"

"How about John?" Ash asked.

Giovanni nodded. "John, I like the sound of that."

Ness smiled. "Well then, John, Mike, welcome to our village."

- - - *

- - -

A busy month and a half later the village had grown into a small town. Most of the Pokémon that had become morphs now had homes of their own. They had managed to build a dome around the meteor and thus had avoided it changing any more people by accident.

Matthew walked with Sparkie down the street towards the Pokécenter. He was taking Sparkie in for a checkup.

Out of what felt like nowhere, Ash's Phanpy, now named "Junior", ran past Matthew, almost knocking him over.

"Sorry!" Junior said.

Ash ran by moments later.

"Sorry about that. Seems that Junior wants to play. Gotta go!" Ash said.

Matthew chuckled while shaking his head. Such incidents while not uncommon kept things interesting. At least, Matthew realized, Chris had mellowed out in the past month. He'd helped Timothy and the others to build some of the houses by performing various tasks. Although Chris wasn't great at lifting when one compared him to Timothy, Chris seemed happy to use his energy in a way that was constructive in a literal sense.

Walking into the Pokécenter, Matthew encountered Maybel, who led Matthew into the back room where he saw Chris standing beside a bed with Alex who was sitting on it.

"Hey guys, is anything wrong?" Matthew asked.

"Hi Matt, hey Sparkie," Alex said with a wave.

"No, nothing's ... wrong. Well," Chris said. He rubbed the back of his head. Matthew wondered what was going on.

Alex put her right hand on Chris' left shoulder and patted it. "It's okay, you can tell him."

"Tell me what?" Matthew asked.

"Well, I know we've been out of touch for the past year but I'm pretty sure the proper phrase is congratulations," Chris said, unable to stifle

"You mean?" Matthew said, beaming.

Alex touched her belly and smiled. "I'm pregnant."

Matthew ran over to Chris and shook his hand. "That's awesome. But when did you, I mean, how did, is it..."

Nurse Joy walked in a few moments later. "Well, I see you've heard the news. The good news is the baby's fine. It's about six weeks into the pregnancy. By the looks of it, it's a Sneasel, although it will probably have some aspects of the father. At this point, it's hard to tell."

Matthew, who calmed down enough to stop shaking Chris' hand, gasped. "That's amazing. But, when did you guys ... you know? I mean, if you don't mind me asking. I mean, I..." he chuckled, feeling embarrassed.

"Well, after that incident with Team Rocket, Chris and I realized that the end could come at any time. We'd been holding back for a long time," Alex said. Chris put a hand on Alex's shoulder, Alex touching the hand with her own. "Well, he said he was worried that if something happened to him that he'd leave nothing behind. I realized that I was worried about the same thing."

Matthew nodded his head. "I understand."

Meanwhile, in the woods, Junior thought he'd managed to elude Ash and was getting ready to wait behind a bush when he heard a faint whimper. He followed the whimper until he found a girl lying on the ground. She looked as though someone or something had attacked her.

"What happened to you?" the Phanpy asked.

The girl looked at him. She tried to get up but only managed a groan before passing out.

Ash caught up to junior moments later. He was about to say more than a few words when he saw the girl.

"Daddy, what happened?" Junior asked.

"That's ... Sabrina. But how could, what could do this to her?" Ash said.

"You know her?" Phanpy asked.

Ash retracted his claws, a skill he and Misty had learned over the past month. He put his fingers to Sabrina's neck, feeling for a pulse. Relief at finding a pulse turned to worry when Ash found it to be unsteady.

"We have to get her to the village. Maybe Nurse Joy can do something for her," Ash said.

Retracting his other claw, Ash picked Sabrina up. While her weight (which while itself wasn't heavy, she still weight enough that carrying her was a challenge) made his arms sore. He bore the pain all the way to the town where Jean Luc saw Ash.

After a quick explanation, Jean Luc rushed to the Pokémon Center, Joy returning with Jean Luc minutes later carrying a stretcher. They loaded Sabrina onto it, Ash and Jean Luc carrying it while Joy did what she could.

"This isn't good she..." Joy's face turned to a look of Sorrow as she gasped. "She's gone. There was nothing I could do."

Ash and Jean Luc put the stretch down, Ash fighting back tears.

"No, she can't be," he cried. Looking at Jean Luc, he desperately searched for idea. "You can make her beat with your electricity."

"Ash, it's too late, it won't do any good I'm sorry," Joy said. She hung her head, her eyes welling up. "I've never lost anyone before."

With hope appearing lost Peter appeared. "No, all is not lost. I can sense her spirit; I can anchor her to this plane but not for long. We have to hurry."

"What do you mean?" Ash asked.

"The meteor. We can use its powers to restore her but if we don't do it soon. Hurry, get Me--Mike, he might be able to help," Peter said.

A minute later, the trio was outside of the dome, Mike stood there having used his telepathy to learn the situation. As others from the town gathered around, Mike, Ash, Joy and Peter brought Sabrina into the dome, closing the door behind them.

Junior stood there watching and waiting as a group gathered. He'd never seen anything die before, and didn't completely understand death itself. From his point of view, they were always supposed to be able to save everyone. The idea that they couldn't save someone seemed impossible.

Ness approached, sensing the emotions of those around him. He felt a sense of someone trying to leave but something was holding her back. He made the connection that someone was at death's doorstep and they were trying to save her. Then, the emotions changed A thin and dissolving thread holding her back strengthen into a thick string and then into a chain. Air breathed into healing lungs. It was working, they were brining her back!

After a tense few minutes later, the group emerged. Sabrina was changed. The once human girl was now the same species as Mike.

"You saved my life, thank you," Sabrina said.

"I'm sorry that we had to do this to you, it was the only way," Ash said.

"It's all right," Sabrina said.

Some among the group began to make connections to the name and type of Pokémon she'd become.

"Sabrina, as in the psychic type gym leader?" Maybel, who'd joined the group asked.

"Yes," Sabrina said.

Much of the group began to step back.

"I assure you that I am not a danger to you I know I cannot earn your trust with mere words. However, you have saved my life. This, I will not forget. Please, allow me the opportunity to prove that I intend you nor anyone else no harm," Sabrina said.

Ness, sense her honesty, was the first to walk forward. "I sense that you're telling the truth. I'm Ness but I'm sure you already knew that."

"Well, I won't read people's minds without their permission. But, I'm pleased to meet you Ness," Sabrina said.

"If Ness trusts you then I know I can," Timothy (who'd since joined the group) said.

"If a fighting type can say that, then I think the rest of us can," Maybel said.

While still nervous, the others began to shake Sabrina's hand as they welcomed her to the town.

"By the way," Sabina asked, looking back and forth. "Do you have a name for your town?"

"Yes," Maybel nodded. "Perhaps, we should say, welcome to Azure Town."

- - -

May was about to walk away from the Meteor chamber when she heard someone else emerge from it. She turned to see a female Bulbasaur morph walked out of the building and regard her.

"Who ... wait a second, you look familiar," May said.

"May, don't you recognize me? It's me, Blossom!" The Bulbasaur said.

"I don't know anyone named Blossom," May said.

"Use your other senses. Listen to my voice, smell my scent, touch my ... skin," Blossom said.

May step closer. She reached out a hand but held it back. "This is crazy; I can't go around touching and sniffing you. People will think I'm some sort of weirdo. We've already got enough weird Furrets around town as it is. But you're voice, you sound just like..."

"Think of it as smelling a flower or a tree. In a sense that's what I am," Blossom said.

May step closer to Blossom. "But you're voice sounds just like my Bulbasaur." Gathering up to courage to smell Blossom, May found that she smelt like the flower on top of her Bulbasaur's body. Each Bulbasaur's flower had a different scent, which May find easier to detect as a Furret lass. But, May knew that if Blossom sounded like her Bulbasaur and had the same scent.

"But you can't! I'm your trainer! You can't go changing yourself without my permission!" May said.

"I wanted to get closer to Gordon, Ash's Bulbasaur. I know he likes me and I like him," Blossom said.

"This isn't right!" May said.

"May ... wait!" Ash said.

Turning around, May saw Ash and Peter. "How long have you two been spying on us?"

"We weren't spying. Look May, just because you're Blossom's trainer doesn't mean you can tell her how to run her life!"

"But ... I, she should have at least asked my permission!" May said.

"That's just the thing, you don't own her. If she wants to change, she has the right to make that decision for herself," Peter said.

"I didn't mean to upset you. But, I ... I snuck in because I knew you'd say no. I was hoping I'd get to Ash's Bulbasaur first. Then we could break the news to you," Blossom said.

Timothy walked up to the group. "May, I know this is hard for you to accept but, just like a parent needs to accept that their children need to choose their own path, we need to allow our Pokémon to chose wither or not to change or not."

"But I ... I didn't get to choose! You guys didn't get to! Jean Luc didn't get to," May said.

"But Blossom had the opportunity and decided to change. You ... we all need to accept that there are those of us that do want to change. We need to let everyone that does make their own decisions," Ash said.

"Like the parent that may disagree with their child's decisions. Sometimes, we have to accept it and embrace it. If they don't allow their children to make mistakes and to decide for themselves, they might never gain the confidence they need to do things without their parent's approval and might never grow as a person," Timothy said.

May looked at Blossom and then at the others.

"I guess you're right. Maybe I do need to start thinking of the others needs first," May said.

Turning to Blossom, May held out her hand before going all out and giving Blossom a hug. "I'm sorry I got upset with you. They're right that even if I didn't want you to do this, you had a right to decide for yourself if you wanted it."

"Sort of like Matthew. Sparkie wanted to stay a normal Pikachu," Timothy said.

"I guess even if it Matt wanted Sparkie a morph, Matt kinda had to accept Sparkie's decision," May said.

Timothy nodded. "It gets easier in time."

May let go of her hug and looked at Ash. "So, are we going to see Gordon or not?"

To Be Concluded...


	22. PokéCats

PokéCats  
Disclaimer: We don't own, so don't sue.  
Author's Note: Written by Ri2. Yeah, he seems to do alot.

- - -

It seemed like an average day at the Eterna City Museum…aside from the Pokemon battle shaking its foundations, that was.

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!" Ash commanded.

"PikaaaaCHUUUUU!" Pikachu shouted, firing a Thunderbolt at Team Rocket.

"Wobbuffet, use Mirror Coat!" Jessie countered.

"Woooooobbuffet!" Wobbuffet shouted, his blue skin glowing blue…er and deflecting the electric attack back at Pikachu. Pikachu squealed in pain as he was flung back, much to Ash's horror.

"Pikachu, no!" Ash cried.

"Now, Carnivine, use Bullet Seed!" James commanded.

"Carnivine!" the giant Bug Catcher cried, spewing glowing yellow seeds at the 'twerps.'

"And Yanmega, use AncientPower!" Jessie ordered.

Her grotesque insect minion, Yanmega, gathered power into a massive white energy ball in its claws, which it flung at its opponents.

"Gyarados, shield everyone using Protect!" Misty commanded.

The great blue Atrocious sea serpent roared and protectively curled its body in front of its teammates, creating a green energy sphere which the energy bullets and sphere exploded harmlessly against.

"Sudowoodo, Mimic that AncientPower!" Brock yelled.

"And Buneary, you use Ice Beam!" Dawn added.

"Sudowoodo!" Sudowoodo saluted, forming a white energy ball identical to Yanmega's and throwing it at Team Rocket.

"Buneary!" Dawn's brown rabbit Pokemon replied, spitting a blue-white energy beam from a sphere of light in her mouth at the Rocket thieves.

"Wobbuffet, block those attacks with Mirror Coat!" Jessie retaliated.

"Woooooobbuffet!" Wobbuffet wailed, glowing blue again and deflecting the special attacks back at the heroic Pokemon. Team Rocket laughed until…

"Gyarados, Headbutt!" Misty shouted.

Gyarados roared as he slammed his head into the still-glowing Wobbuffet, flinging him into Yanmega and knocking both of them out of the air. "Waaahhh! Why didn't Mirror Coat stop him?!" Jessie shrieked.

"Mirror Coat only stops Special attacks, not Physical ones," James pointed out.

Jessie sweatdropped. "Oh yeah…"

"Careful, both of you!" Meowth snapped, having nearly gotten hit by Yanmega and Wobbuffet. "I can barely lift dis thing as is, if something hits me, dis here pretty kitty's gonna go flying!" The Scratchcat was carrying a very large sitting Persian statue made out of some dark material that was at least half again as tall as he was, and twice as heavy. "And da Boss ain't gonna like it if dis thing gets broken!"

"And neither will we," James said anxiously. "I just know that if that thing breaks, the spirit of an ancient Pokegyptian cat goddess is going to come out and possess the twerpette, who'll turn us into her neko slaves! Or maybe a Mismagius archmage will appear and cast us into our worst nightmares, where we'll be changed into what we fear most! Or maybe a DNA time-warp wave will wash out and rewrite history so that we're all dinosaurs instead of mammals! Or maybe-"

Jessie hit James. "You read too much fanfiction," she growled.

"Okay Pikachu, Carnivine's all they have left! Finish him off with Iron Tail!" Ash ordered.

"Pikapika!" Pikachu replied, charging at the big-mouthed plant, jumping into the air, and striking it on the head with a glowing tail. The Carnivine wailed as he was flung back into James, who bumped into Meowth, who nearly lost hold of the statue and had to scramble to get a better grip…

Causing him to grab one of the Persian's paws, which had rather sharp claws. He yelped in pain as he got scratched, and dropped the statue…which didn't break in the slightest on contact with the floor. The same could not be said for Meowth's foot, however, which the statue had landed on top of. He screamed loudly enough to break the glass in every building for two miles.

"They're defenseless! Now's our chance!" said Misty. "Gyarados, Hyper Beam!"

"Buneary, Ice Beam!" said Dawn.

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!" said Ash.

"Sudowoodo, Take Down!" said Brock.

The four Pokemon fired their attacks (well, three of them did, Sudowoodo just ran ahead while flailing his arms) and collided with Team Rocket, triggering an explosion which launched them through the ceiling and far, far away. "Looks like we're blasting off agaaaaaaaiiiiiiin!" they wailed as they vanished with a twinkle. The Persian statue was unharmed, naturally.

"Nice going, you guys!" Ash congratulated the Pokemon.

"Pikachu!" Pikachu said, mimicking Ash's victory pose…until an ecstatic Buneary glomped him and started nuzzling him joyfully, much to his displeasure.

"Good work, Sudowoodo," Brock told the fake tree, who saluted him with a smile.

"You were great, Misty! I can see why Ash speaks so highly of you!" Dawn told Misty.

Misty blushed. "D-does he now?"

The museum curator cleared his throat. "This is all well and good, and I'm glad you managed to save the Obsidian Cat, but…who's going to pay for all the damages?"

There was an awkward pause as they looked at the large craters and holes in the walls that had been made in the epic battle. Ash glanced anxiously at Brock, who pulled out his wallet and opened it to reveal it was empty. "Uh…" He laughed nervously. "Hoo boy…"

…

Meanwhile, far away…

Groaning in pain, Team Rocket managed to pull themselves to their feet. "Well, that went about as well as could be imagined," Jessie grumbled.

"Who knew the original twerpette was in town on a visit?" James asked.

"Oh, my aching head…and paw…" Meowth groaned, clutching his head with one hand and grimacing at the other, which had some very deep scratches in it. It looked as if they were actually glowing… He blinked in surprise as they sealed up on their own and vanished without a trace. "Huh? Okay, dat was weird…"  
Jessie sighed. "I guess we can't give the Boss that rare ancient statue for his front lawn, after all…"  
"It's probably for the best," James said wisely. "I doubt his Persian would have tolerated something as pretty as it was in the Boss's presence."  
"Dat lousy prima donna…" Mewoth growled, his disappearing injury forgotten for the moment by his overwhelming hatred for his 'rival.'  
"Wooooobbuffet!" Wobbuffet said randomly, as he usually did.  
Jessie waved to the others. "Come on, let's get back to the balloon and start coming up with our next plan to catch Pikachu…I was thinking we could dig a hole and disguise ourselves as construction workers, setting up a fake roadblock and say that they have to detour right over it!"  
"Ah, a classic!" Meowth said, pleased with this sure-to-fail idea.  
"Can I wear a dress?" James asked hopefully. The others stared at him. He flushed. "I like wearing pretty things…"  
They sweatdropped. "James, sometimes you worry me."  
"Sometimes?" Meowth asked.  
"Wobbuwobbuffet!" Wobbuffet added randomly, like he usually did.  
They headed off to set up their guaranteed to fail plan, forgetting Meowth's brief injury in the process. They would regret it in the near future.

…

A few days and several failed schemes later…

"Mwahahahahaha!" Jessie cackled from inside the cockpit of Team Rocket's latest giant mecha. "This time, twerps, you don't stand a chance against us!"

"Yes, our giant Luvdisc robot will defeat you…with the power of LOVE!" James cried, clasping his hands together and sighing romantically.

Jessie nodded vigorously. "That's right! Once we hit you with our Attract-o-beam, you'll fall in love with us and gladly give us all your Pokemon!"

Ash, Brock, Misty, and Dawn stared at them incredulously. Brock's eye twitched. Pikachu facepalmed. "…That's either the stupidest or most disgusting thing you've ever tried to do," Ash said faintly.

Misty nodded weakly. "Including that one time where James tried to enter a beauty contest for women…using fake breasts…" Dawn's face turned green at that, and she had to struggle not to throw up.

James pouted. "I liked those breasts…they made me feel…whole somehow…oh, how I wish I could have some of my own!" He paused when he realized Jessie was staring at him. "Er…not that I have breast envy or anything like that. Yeah."

Jessie's eye twitched. Trying to take her mind off all the disturbing implications of their conversation, she focused her attention on Meowth instead. "Meowth, will you stop scratching already? It's getting annoying, and you're just going to make it worse!"

Meowth glanced anxiously up from the paw he was scratching, the same one that had gotten wounded earlier that week. Since then, it had swollen up and gotten all knobby and gross, with oversized claws jutting from his skin. "I can't help it! It's just so…itchy!" Meowth complained. "I really think there's something wrong with it…"

"We should take him to a doctor," James recommended.

"Or we could just amputate it," Jessie said casually. "It would be much cheaper." Meowth paled and gave Jessie a horrified look when he heard that.

"Uh, anyway…let's fire up our Attract-o-beam!" James said, trying to get them back on track with their evil plan.

"Yes!" Jessie said villainously. "And who knows, once the twerps get hit by the beam, maybe the main twerp and the first girl will finally get together!"

Ash and Misty both turned bright red and automatically shouted at the top of their lungs, "HE'S/SHE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND/GIRLFRIEND!"

Brock sighed. "Nothing changes…" Pikachu nodded in agreement, and privately felt relieved that Buneary was still in her Pokeball, otherwise she might start getting certain…ideas…

"Hmm…" Dawn frowned, feeling just the teensiest bit jealous. It wasn't as if she liked Ash or anything…or did she?

Meowth's eye twitched. "G-get together?" His paw started wiggling and shaking. It actually started getting BIGGER, as claws sharpened and lengthened and veins bulged out of his skin. He screamed as the fur of his hand turned pitch black and his arm began to look like something out of a monster movie. "Aahhhhh! Help! Help! Somebody help me-" His voice trailed off.

Jessie and James looked at each other uncertainly. "Uh…Meowth? Are you okay?" James asked timidly.

Meowth stood silently, his back turned to them. And then…his head swiveled 180 degrees, revealing a gruesome visage with utterly blank, white staring eyes and a mouth full of slavering fangs! Meowth hissed at them, and James screamed, wet himself, and jumped into Jessie's arms, in about that order. Rather than eat them or tear their faces off, however, the monstrous Meowth seemed to decide it had better prey at hand, smashing out of the robot Luvdisc's cockpit and landing in front of the startled heroes. They gasped upon seeing the transfigured Meowth as it snarled and spat at them.

"Whoa! What's happened to him?!" cried the startled Ash.

"It looks like he has rabies or something…like the Growlithe in that one movie!" said an alarmed Misty.

"Oh no, I hated that movie! And the way the boy had to put down the dog at the end was so sad!" Dawn said. "Are we going to have to put Meowth down, too?" Pikachu brightened at that, personally not thinking that would be a bad idea.

"Nobody make any sudden moves," Brock said, slowly reaching into his backpack. "Maybe some Potion will-"

He didn't get the chance. With a feral scream, Meowth abruptly dashed towards the heroes on all fours. Pikachu immediately leaped off of Ash's shoulder to intercept him, but Meowth astonished them all by batting Pikachu away like a fly then pouncing at Misty, who screamed as Meowth drew back with his grotesque mutant claw and slashed her across the face, knocking her to the ground in the process.

"MISTY!" cried a horrified Ash. He started towards her, but Meowth attacked him, too, slashing him across the face and shoving him down before giving the same treatment to Dawn, who shrieked in agony as blood flew from the lines on her face.

"NO!" Brock cried, aghast. He had never seen anything like this before! What was he supposed to do?! He knew he should get out a Pokemon or an item or do SOMETHING, but the look in Meowth's empty, pupilless eyes scared him so much that he found himself unable to move, even to help his friends.

"Pi…ka…" Groaning, Pikachu managed to get to his feet, shaking his head to regain his senses. How had the weakling Meowth managed to do that to him?! Turning around, he gasped when he saw that the evil Pokemon had managed to wound his Pikapi, Pikachu-Pi, and Dawn (So he hadn't thought up a name for her yet. He'd do it eventually.) How dare he! His vision turned red with anger as he built up a tremendous amount of electricity in his cheeks to smite down the traitorous feline once and for all.

Ash was seeing red too, both literally and metaphorically since there was a lot of blood on his face. "Pikachu…KILL!" he shouted, angered beyond belief by what Meowth had done to two of his best friends.

Meowth blinked, his eyes suddenly returning to normal. "Huh? What happened? Wait, where am I-"

Pikachu, either not noticing or caring that Meowth had regained his senses, attacked. "PIIIIKAAAACHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" the mouse shouted, releasing a blast of divine thunder which shook the heavens and rent the earth and certainly would have vaporized Meowth on the spot had he not been contractually immortal. That didn't stop him from screaming in agony as several million volts of raw power coursed through his body, frying his hair and whiskers, and blasting him back into the Luvdisc robot, which exploded in a tremendous mushroom cloud and sent Team Rocket flying away so fast and hard they didn't even get the chance to yell their trademark line before vanishing over the horizon.

"Wow," said an impressed Brock. Then he remembered his friends had been savagely attacked. "Ash! Misty! Dawn!" He rushed over to his friends, reaching them at the same time Pikachu did…and so was just in time to witness an astonishing transformation!

Pale tan fur started growing all over Ash's face and exposed skin, much to the weakened trainer's surprise. His clothes tightened as extra muscles bulked up all over his body, but thankfully didn't break apart. His fingernails lengthened into rather neat and refined claws, very unlike the twisted ones Meowth had scratched them with. A bulge formed on the seat of his pants and finally ripped apart as a long, dainty tail covered in pale tan fur extended from his spine, curled up at the end. His nose extended from his face as a muzzle formed with six long, fine whiskers growing from it, three to a side. His eyes became a little larger and his pupils narrowed into red-rimmed slits. His ears shriveled into the sides of his head as a pair of big black-edged cat ears grew from the black mess of hair on top of his head, pushing off his hat in the process. A beautiful glistening red jewel formed in the center of his forehead. The gashes Meowth had made in Ash's face glowed and sealed up seamlessly, leaving nothing behind.

Misty also grew tan fur, but it was a little darker than Ash's. Her arms and fingers became slender, daintier, and more delicate, with very fine and very sharp retractable claws at the ends. A tail much like Ash's also burst out through the back of her clothes, but it was a lot thinner and ended in a purple tuft rather than a curl. Her figure developed significantly as certain parts of her body rapidly matured, pressing tightly against her clothes and leaving little to (Brock's) imagination. Tufts of hair grew outward from her cheeks as her ears grew outward and became much larger, turning purple as well as gaining tufts at the ends and taking up most of the sides and top of her head, though her red hair was still there and had grown down to her waist, becoming sleeker, shinier, and more lustrous in the process. Her pupils dilated and swelled up until they seemed to fill up most of her eyes, becoming dark black glistening jewels in the process. Her nose shrunk into her face and became a little black dot. Also, a purple ruff-like collar somehow formed around her neck. The scratches on her face healed, leaving her face clear…and rather gorgeous, at that.

Dawn grew thick gray fur, in contrast to the other two, while still retaining her blue hair, which also lengthened down to her waist and became shinier like Misty's. Her hands grew slimmer and developed white fur in contrast to the gray. A much longer tail than either Ash or Misty's ripped out from the back of her skirt, curled into a spring-shape similar to that of a Spoink with a white fluff tip at the end. Her head elongated to the sides to become crescent-shaped, her ears getting longer and bigger and also gaining white tips. A muzzle sort of like Ash's formed, but it was shorter, also white rather than gray, had a small black nose, and six long, thin whiskers. Her eyes got larger and became yellow with white irises. Her figure also rapidly developed, quickly becoming the equal of Misty's, and the rival of most supermodels. The scratches on her face healed up, leaving her new feline features flawless.

Brock's jaw dropped. Pikachu's eyes rolled back in his head and he fainted. "Whoa," the eyeless boy said finally.

Ash, Misty, and Dawn stared at each other incredulously. "What…what the…" Ash stammered.

"How did we…" Misty whispered in disbelief.

"What's happened to us?!" Dawn cried in alarm.

"Wh-whatever it is…you look…great!" Brock burst out. They stared at him.

"Croagunk!" Brock's Croagunk croaked, Poison Jabbing him in the side and causing him to fall to the ground, body locked in paralysis.

"Ack! Definitely better…than I feel…right now," Brock gasped as Croagunk dragged him away by one foot.

The transfigured trainers sweatdropped. Pikachu woke up, stared at his friends, and passed out again.

…

A little later, somewhere far, far away…

"Guys, is dis really necessary?" Meowth asked anxiously from the tree he had been tied to. "I tink my ribs are starting ta crack…"

"Don't worry, Meowth, we'll let you down as soon as we exorcise that evil spirit from you," Jessie assured the cat. "Speaking of which…James! Are you ready yet?"

"Just a minute!" James cried from behind a bush. The leaves rustled a few moments later and he crawled out into the clearing…dressed in a nun's habit.

Jessie sweatdropped. "James, why are you wearing that?"

"The exorcism website says we need a pure maiden to cast out the evil within Meowth," James explained.

Jessie was still confused. "…Then why aren't I wearing that?"

Meowth burst into laughter. "You? Pure? Since when, girlfriend? Hahahaha-MEOUCH!" he screamed as the enraged Jessie smashed his face in.

"Jessie, don't hurt him! It'll only give the demon strength!" James protested, pulling the furious Jessie away from poor Meowth. "Now, let's begin the ceremony!"

Mime Jr., wearing a kimono, hit a gong. Wobbuffet and Carnivine, also wearing kimonos, walked in circles around the clearing, the former swinging an incense pot on a stick (actually some of Jessie's soaps melted down to make something 'fragrant') and the latter happily sprinkling confetti everywhere. Seviper began singing…very badly, while Yanmega vibrated his wings in an attempt to create a melody…also very badly. Jessie gawked. James pulled out an upside-down cross and waved it vaguely in front of Meowth's face. "In the name of the Mother, the third cousin twice-removed, and the Holy Dead Guy, I abhor ye! Out, out, damn spirit! The power of Chris compels you! The power of Chris compels you! The power of Chris compels you!"

Jessie sweatdropped. "James, I don't think this is going to-"

"AAAAHHH! Something's happening!" Meowth screamed in terror as his malformed paw started wriggling again. As they watched, transfixed, the swelling went down, the claws shrunk, and the mutated paw returned to its original state.

"It's working!" James cried. "Keep going, everyone! Double time! The power of Chris compels you! The power of Chris compels you! THE POWER OF CHRIS COMPELS YOU!" Mime Jr. hit the gong repeatedly, Wobbuffet and Carnivine ran in faster and faster circles, while Yanmega and Seviper took their music to new highs…of awfulness.

Jessie's jaw dropped. "I can't believe this is happening!"

"GWAAAAHHHH!" Meowth wailed, his eyes rolling back in their sockets to show only whites as he began hissing in tongues. His stomach gurgled, his cheeks swelled up, and abruptly vomited a blast of pure darkness that washed over James, causing him to scream in agony and stop his chanting. Everyone else stopped what they were doing, shocked, as the darkness faded and James fell to the ground.

"JAMES!" Jessie cried.

"Mime mime!" wailed a horrified Mime Jr.

They raced over to James' side as Meowth belched. "Uhhh…that feels better…hey, is anyone gonna cut me down from here or something?"

"James! James, speak to me!" Jessie cried, turning over James' body…and recoiling in horror at what she saw there.

James blinked up at her with yellow irises set in red eyes. "What? What is it?" he asked in a surprisingly high and femine voice. His face was covered in blue and black fur and had become leonine, with a short spiky blue mane and big ears that looked like they belonged more on a mouse than on a cat. His hands, from what could be seen due to the long sleeves of his habit, had become black-furred paws. Looking down at himself in puzzlement, James sat up…causing his habit, weakened by the blast Meowth had vomited, to shred into nothingness. James squealed in alarm and automatically covered his…or rather, her surprisingly ample chest. That's right, her, James had become a woman (and a rather attractive one at that), covered in black and blue fur, with yellow and blue stripes under his arms, big tufts of fur on the shoulders and rear, and a long wire-like tail ending in a four-pointed yellow star.  
Jessie's jaw dropped. Carnivine started drooling. Mime Jr. fainted. Seviper and Yanmega stared blankly. Wobbuffet did nothing. Meowth's eyes were wide. "Ooh la la…" he whispered, completely besotted by the new James.

"Oh my…what has happened to me?" James asked in a mellifluous voice. "I feel so different and beautiful…like a dream come true!"

"What…what in the name of…" Jessie stammered, trying and failing to understand what on Earth was going on.

Meowth broke the ropes binding him to the tree through sheer force of will and glomped James, nuzzling her affectionately. "Where've you been all my life, gorgeous?"

James flushed and laughed timidly. "Oh my…I never knew you felt that way, Meowth!"

"I think you'll be surprised about a lot of things concerning me, Jimmy-girl," Meowth purred, licking James' cheek. She giggled girlishly…which made sense since she was a girl. Then again, she'd laughed like that when she was a guy, too…

Jessie sweatdropped. "My life no longer makes any sense…" she groaned.

Yanmega decided that this might be a good time to tell her that he was actually madly in love with her and wanted her children. Needless to say, that didn't go too well.

…

Some more time later…

Brock stood up from his seat as Professor Oak left the examination room. "So, Professor, what's your prognosis?"

Oak glanced back over his shoulder into the room he had just left, where Ash, Misty, and Dawn were still being poked and prodded by Nurse Joy and several of his colleagues. "Well, they don't appear to be in bad shape, other than the obvious genetic reconfiguration. In fact, they seem healthier than they've ever been."

"Do you know what caused this?" Brock pressed. "I mean, I'm sure it's something Meowth did. Is it some kind of new virus, one that transforms people into Pokemorphs?"

Oak snorted. "What? Don't be preposterous, such a virus is biologically and scientifically impossible to create! Now, nanomachines, on the other hand…" He shook his head. "But that's neither here nor there. I've consulted with several of my colleagues and spoken to the curator of the Eterna Museum. I believe that Team Rocket's Meowth handled the Obsidian Persian at some point before your latest encounter with them, and his paw has been getting deformed since then, according to your own observations?"

Brock nodded. "Yes, why?" He frowned. "Wait…Did that statue have something to do with this?"

Oak nodded. "I believe so. The curator and Professor Hale checked several old records and scriptures and found that the Obsidian Persian is the representation of an ancient feline fertility deity who used to 'matchmake' prospective couples by transforming them into cat-people and increasing their hormones to become attracted to each other and eventually mate with one another."

Brock frowned. "That sounds really annoying."

Oak nodded. "It is, that's why the ancients sealed it away. When Meowth touched the statue, it must have possessed him somehow, and used him as its vessel to transform Ash, Misty, and Dawn, seeing them as a couple…er, trio…that needed badly to be, ah, brought together, so to speak."

Brock was astounded. "Ash and Misty I can understand, but Dawn? I had no idea she felt that way about Ash…I always thought she liked that Kenny kid. Or Zoey. She seemed like the type…" Oak stared at him. Brock coughed and changed the subject. "So, uh, what can we do about this?"

Oak shrugged. "Not much. We can probably find a way to reverse the effects of the transformation, but probably not for a while. In the meantime, Ash, Misty and Dawn will have to deal with what's happened to them…and how the three of them are now inextricably bound together by fate. Sort of."

Brock nodded thoughtfully. "I see…Professor, do you suppose that spirit is still inside Meowth?"

Oak considered that for a moment. "Possibly, assuming it saw another prospective couple it felt needed its 'assistance' in the vicinity. Otherwise, it would have left to find another host and continue its task. Thankfully, it can only possess cat Pokemon, so that should limit the extent of the damage it can cause."

"Darn," said the disappointed Brock. "Guess I'll have to get a cat." When the Professor gave him a puzzled look, he explained, "I was hoping I could use it to change and pair myself with Nurse Joy…or Officer Jenny…or Mrs. Ketchum…or-"

"Croagunk!"

"Gah!" Brock cried, turning pale and falling to the floor. "Anyone…but…you…" he gasped as Croagunk dragged him away.

Professor Oak sweatdropped. "Talk about an odd couple…" He frowned. "Hmm, but Brock asked a valid question. I wonder where that spirit could be now?"

…

Meanwhile, in the Johto region…

May gasped as Drew offered her a beautiful bouquet. "Oh! Drew…are those for me?!"

"Hmm? Don't be preposterous, May," Drew sniffed. "These are for Beautifly. She did very well in today's Contest. You, on the other hand…"

May frowned. "'You, on the other hand,' WHAT, Drew? What did I do now?!"

Drew paused. "Well…I really think you should stop wearing that new outfit when you're on stage. It kind of makes you look…well, like a harem girl."

May's face turned red. "A harem girl? A HAREM GIRL?! Is that all you see me as, Drew, just another one of your fangirls or girlfriends that you have in pretty much every city in every region, someone to mess around with then dump whenever you're not in the mood to play with anymore?!"

"What? No, of course not!" Drew protested. "I'm just saying that you're making yourself look like an idiot! And showing off a little too much, if you get my meaning. There are some pretty perverted Contest fans out there and even some Coordinators—take it from me, I know from experience—who might find some of the things you wear an invitation to try to get to know you better…in a way you might not like ANYONE to know you!"

This did little to alleviate May's anger. "Oh, so are you saying that you don't want anyone to look at me but YOU, Drew?! I don't belong to you, you know, it's not like we're dating or anything…and whose fault is that, might I add?"

"No!" Drew protested, throwing up his hands in exasperation. "Ugh, why is everything so complicated with you?! I was just trying to warn you because I care about you on some level, and don't want you to get hurt by—May, why is your Skitty staring at us like that?"

May blinked and glanced at her pink Pokemon, who was staring at them eerily. "Huh? Skitty, is something wrong? I'm pretty sure I fed you already…or did Munchlax eat your food AGAIN?! Ugh, I'm going to need to have a talk with that walking garbage disposal later-"

"May, I think something's wrong with your Skitty," Drew said anxiously as the cat's eye slits started glowing red and one of its paws bulged up into a rather grotesque-looking claw. "Something very wrong…"

May's face paled. "Skitty?"

"MROWR!" Skitty pounced.

Screams filled the hotel room.

…  
THE END…?

Yes, yes it is.


	23. Azure Days pt 3

Azure Days (Part 3 of 3)

Disclaimer: We only own the people you don't recognize. And even then we may not. Capeesh? (STILL Lazily Copied)

Author Note: This Story is written by Rusty Raccoon. It's by far the longest Chronicle yet... (Yeah...)

And now, the conclusion

- - -

Late at night, under the stars John was sitting in the centre of the town with Peter. The two of them had started working to piece together the last seven years of John's life.

"Okay, are you ready to begin?" Peter asked.

"Yes," John said.

Closing his eyes, John did his best to remember the days before his mother possessed him. In his mind, he saw the memories of years as a brick wall. He pictured Peter with him trying smash through that brick wall. At first it proved unprintable until Giovanni felt something. It was a memory from before his mother posed him. The memory was hazy as though he were under the influence of something at the time.

"I'm remembering something," John said.

"Okay, try to focus on it," Peter said.

John shook his head. "It's fuzzy. Damn it, focus! Come on, let me have this!"

"Try not to get upset, it will only cloud your judgment," Peter said.

John frowned. "That's easy for you to say! How would you feel if you had a seven year gap in your head?"

"I understand your frustration," Peter said.

Sighing, John shook his head. "I'm sorry for snapping. It's just so aggravating. I feel like someone stole those memories from me. I can see them in a container just out of my reach. If I can just grab the container! But, it keeps getting further away! This is torture! Why are they doing this to me?" John asked.

"Try to focus on a memory that you associate this memory you've almost accessed with. You say you were under the influence of something at the time," Peter said.

"Yes, I know it's shameful," John said.

"I will not judge you. To do so isn't my place. What were you under the influence of? A drug? Alcohol?" Peter asked.

"It was, I believe it was sake," John said.

Doing his best, John tried to remember the bar he was at. Some memories came back when he pictured the bar. The smell of the smoke, the appearance of the barkeeper and waiters.

"Okay, you can picture the location. Try and look around. What do you see?" Peter asked John did as Peter asked. At first, he could only see a thick haze of smoke in his mind. Then he heard a woman's voice in the fog. He looked in her direction. The voice was familiar and he knew that something had happened with her. It annoyed him that he couldn't remember what it was as though he was looking at a document that he knew had important information but someone had blacked out most of the text.

John told Peter of the analogy.

"All right, use her voice as the person to erase that black ink. Picture her as holding someone to remove it. You lean in closer to her, what does she look like?"

John did his best. Then another image entered his mind. Red hair! The smoke started to clear around her then he could see her!

"Peachkins. I mean, Hellen Waterflower!" John said.

The name triggered something in John's mind. Several of the black lines on the document vanished

"I'd had several drinks. Mrs. Waterflower was with me. She wanted something," John said.

"Money?" Peter asked.

John shook his head. "No, it was something else. She wanted ... someone."

Inside John's mind, the smoke surrounding the couple thinned. John remembered that his head was pounding. Hellen

Was talking about something to do with someone.

"Try to think of something to do with the person. A hair color for example," Peter said.

"Red ... water ... oh my God!" John said.

It had hit him like a ton of bricks. He saw the document open before his eyes. The memory cleared like a fog that shrouded a road lifting!

"I made a deal with Hellen Waterflower. A contract. For her youngest daughter to marry my firstborn son! Oh my God, how could I have been more foolish?" John asked.

"Wait, Hellen Waterflower. Isn't that Misty's mother?" Peter asked.

"Yes," John said.

Peter smiled. "Then it works out. Ash is your firstborn and Misty is their youngest daughter!"

"Which means, legally they must get married," John said.

"Ash and Misty has a right to know," Peter said.

John shook his head. "How could I have been so foolish? To force my son into a relationship that may never have worked."

"We all make mistakes. Perhaps we should focus on what we do next rather then what may or may not have been?" Peter said.

John nodded. "You're right. I must tell my son the truth."

- - -

John walked into the centre of town where he'd requested Deliah, Ash and Misty to wait for him.

As he arrived there were several other residents of the town were milling about, including Timothy and Peter. Whiskers was sitting on the edge of the fountain they'd recently installed licking away at an ice cream cone for what was the first time in her life.

"All right, I think you should all sit down for this," John said.

Ash and the others did so. Before John as about to spoke, he took a deep breath.

"There's something you all need to know," John said.

"What is it dad?" Ash asked.

"You're passing a law saying Ash has to start bathing more than one a week?" Misty asked.

"Misty!" Ash said.

"What? It's only water attacks that hurt you, you know!" Misty said.

John rolled his eyes. "No, that's not it."

"What is it dear?" Deliah asked.

"Ash, teasing aside, you and Misty care for each other, right?" John asked.

Ash blushed, but nodded. "Yeah, I guess so"

John cringed before deciding to deliver the news "How would you react if I told you that, years ago, I um, arranged for you two to be married?"

Misty bolted up. "You did what?"

Ash gasped and fell over. Deliah stared at John, her eyes wide.

As Misty advanced on John with her Mallet in hand, John held out his hands. He did his best to relay the story.

Around the group, Peter flew over to Whiskers, telling her that it would be best if they vacated the area. A promise of double dip chocolate was enough to get her to comply. Timothy bolted into action, using his strength to restrain Misty.

"Let me go!" Misty cried.

"Dad, how could you? Why would do you this to me?" Ash asked as he picked himself up.

Misty turned around, staring at Ash. "To you? I have to get married too you know!"

"This is great! You two always liked each other! Now I can plan a wedding! Oh, Mr. Timothy, that Church you guys built will come in perfect! All the friends whose pictures are on the walls just have to attend! I have to start planning! We need to get you measured for a Wedding gown Misty! Oh Ash, you'll look so darling in a tuxedo! Who's going to be your best man?" Deliah said.

Timothy shook his head. "To paraphrase Chris, Rule #31, Deliah plus Caffeine equals no!"

Ash shook his head. "Me in a Tuxedo? Me getting married?"

"Us, getting married!" Misty said.

Ash grimaced as beads of sweat formed on his forehead. "Us, that's what I meant, Sand Slashes honor!"

"Please everyone just calm down! I'm sorry for this! But, we need to do this or society would consider you two a disgrace!" John said.

"Isn't the term, you'll lose face?" Timothy asked.

"Yes, I think your right dear! Oh, you'll look so handsome in a tuxedo. Maybe you can Ash's best man. Misty, you'll need to get bridesmaids and we'll need confetti and where are you two going to go for the Honeymoon..."

"Let me go Tim!" Misty yelled.

"Not until you've calmed down!" Timothy said.

Ash, watching Deliah make plans with the energy of a Furret on sugar and caffeine, looked at Misty. "Well, think of it this way, we do like each other."

Misty put her mallet away and looked up at Timothy. "I promise I won't flatten Ash," she said.

Timothy let her go and Misty walked over to Ash. "Yes, we do like each other. At least now I can tell my sisters that I'm getting married to -you-. They'll be so jealous that they'll bust a gut. Maybe this will work out after all."

"Oh yes, Mr. Timothy, your friends Chris and Alex need to get married to! We can't have Alex having a baby out of wedlock!" Deliah said.

"Speaking of Chris, he and Alex seem to get getting cold feet. If you guys don't mind, I need to have a talk with them," Timothy said.

"Okay. Although, I might want to have Jean Luc be my best man... I wonder if Mew is available to be the ring bearer. Don't they always have kids do that sort of thing?" Ash asked.

"That's okay bro. I wonder if Chris would be interested in me being *his* best man," Timothy asked.

"Only one way to find out," Ash said.

Timothy nodded and ran towards Chris' house, disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

- - -

Chris and Alex were sitting outside their house when Timothy arrived.

"Hey Tim," Chris said.

"Hi, Timothy, how are you doing?" Alex asked.

"I'm good. Have you guys heard the news?" Timothy asked. He shook his head. "Okay, of course you haven't. But I can be the first to tell you."

"What news is that?" Alex asked.

"Ash and Misty are getting married!" Timothy said.

Chris and Alex looked each other.

"But they're so young!" Chris said.

"They're only fourteen. We're freaked out enough as is it and I'm 26 and Alex 27! I mean, it seems like we were that age only recently but it's... my God has it been that young?" Chris asked.

"I know, it's like, even we're too young for this. I mean, we're not exactly spring chickens any more but it's not we're old enough that if we don't

Rusty says:

Get married now that we're never going to! But, I don't want our baby to be born out of wedlock. I'm not sure what to do. I don't even know if I'm ready to be a mother," Alex said.

Chris shook his head. "Fourteen. Man, they're so young. They should still be playing video games and barley even dating if even dating at that age. That's crazy! How come they want to get married?"

Timothy did his best to explain the situation.

Chris sighed. "See, I was never into arranged marriages. I mean, what would happen if Alex or I found out that someone had done that to us! I could end up a criminal and some other guy would raise my kid. I mean, my kid! That's going to be born from our love and..."

Alex petted Chris back. "Calm down, it's all right. I know you don't like it when people force other people in lives they may or may not want. Its part of why I think you'll make a good father. At least you won't try to force our baby to be something he or she doesn't want to."

"Well, at least Ash and Misty love each other so, it worked out. And Chris, I know we've had our differences but I agree that you'll make a good father," Timothy said.

Chris nodded. "I guess I'm still a little scared. I mean, I'm old enough to be getting married and to be a father. I mean seems like just yesterday I was the kid. Although, I wonder how I'd have looked as a Furret as a kid?"

Timothy's eyes went wide. "You're hyper enough as an adult!"

Chris grinned. "One can never be too hyper."

"Anyway. I know you guys are nervous about this. I thought of some advice that I think may help you both," Timothy said.

Chris and Alex looked at each other and nodded their heads. "All right," Chris said.

"We're listening," Alex said.

"Well, I mean, you guys love each other right?" Timothy said.

Chris and Alex looked at each other, nodded and their heads, saying yes in unison.

"Are you wondering that if maybe you wait, things might be more ideal in the future?" Timothy asked.

Again, Chris and Alex seemed to agree.

"Well, there's an old saying I remembered. _A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush_," Timothy said.

Alex nodded. "I see what you mean. Right now we have something. Why wait for a future chance that may never come?"

"Yeah, after what happened to us, sometimes I worry that if there's a next time, we won't be so lucky. I'd hate to go out having put things off so long that I never got around to doing them," Chris said.

Timothy nodded. "I mean, this way, you'll both have a sure thing and know you're getting something you want. I know you're both nervous but I doubt anyone is ever truly ready for this when the day comes."

Chris nodded. "Yeah. I mean, I keep thinking something will click in my mind. Sort of like a door that opens and once I go through I have access to all this wisdom and knowledge of how to the perfect husband and Dad."

Alex chuckled. "Yeah, and me the perfect wife ... and mother," Alex said as she put a hand on her belly

"Well, you do have plenty of people to give you guy's advice. I mean, Deliah must know something about raising kids, she raised Ash," Timothy said.

"So, it's normal to be nervous then?" Chris asked.

"Of course it is! Everyone is nervous. But, once you get used to it, you'll wonder how you ever felt complete without it," Timothy said.

Chris and Alex nodded.

"Well then, I'd say it's just a matter of when. That and telling our families. I wonder who's going to be my best man. Wow, me having a best man!" Chris said.

Timothy nodded and looked at Chris.

"I think he's trying to tell you something 'hon." Alex said

"Tim, I'd be honored if you'd be my best man," Chris said.

"Wow, we're going to have to figure out who's going to be the ring bearer and all of that stuff. I've never done anything like this before," Alex said.

"Word of advice, be prepared when you talk to Ash's Mom. Chris, she could give you a run for your money in the hyper department," Timothy said.

Chris grinned. "We'll see about that."

Alex put an arm across Chris' chest. "Let's talk to our parents first. Then you and Deliah can have your hyper contest."

Chris nodded. "All right."

- - -

Word spread across the town about the upcoming weddings. It was something that seemed to energies everyone. Chris and Alex had talked to their parents, who were planning on visiting the town in time for the weddings.

Other preparations were underway.

May had elected to become the tailor for the gentleman and ladies involved in the weddings.

Peter and his Sableye, Nina, had planned on making Rings for the couples.

Deliah had arranged to build the weddings cakes. More than one member of the Town had to restrain her from calling in every caterer and news agency available for Ash and Misty's wedding.

Chris was feeling a bit lost in all the action. Most of the people from his point of view seemed to be focusing on Ash and Misty. While Alex had happy to be able to see her family again, Chris felt almost left behind, as though he and Alex were more of an afterthought.

Alex and Chris were walking toward May's house, where they were to get measurements for Alex's gown and Chris' tuxedo.

"I don't get it," Chris said.

"Don't get what?" Alex asked.

"May's a Furret, I'm a Furret, and you'd think she'd want to talk to me a bit. Don't get me wrong, I mean, I don't mean in that way. It's just that, sometimes I feel like people don't like me," Chris said.

"They're just not quite as ... energetic as you," Alex said.

"I know, but I can't be someone I'm not. I just want to do certain things. I just find it easier to play. I don't know why," Chris said.

Alex patted Chris' right shoulder. "Furrets are energetic. You were already more casual before all this happened. I guess it's just brought out that aspect in you more. Think of it this way, it'll make you great with the kids"

"Yeah, that's true. I mean, I get along great with Whiskers," Chris said.

"I know there's something else bothering you. You mentioned how it feels like we're more like background characters in all of this," Alex said.

The duo passed by Maybel who waved to them.

"Yeah, I mean, I don't need this to be all extravagant or anything. But, on the other hand, you only get married once. I mean, in the past, there we're things I should have done that I didn't."

"Like what?" Alex asked.

"Well, for one, at my graduation, I never did much for it. I mean, you only get one graduation, at least for each level of schooling," Chris said.

The duo had reached May's house. Ash and Misty were there.

"I know what you're saying but you were there weren't you?" Alex asked.

"Yes," Chris said.

"Maybe, that's more important. I mean, no matter how much you do, there's always something more you could have done. Isn't what comes after the ceremony more important? The ceremony is just one day. I'd say the rest of our lives are more important," Alex said.

Chris smiled and hugged Alex. "You're right. Always did know how to make me feel better."

"My Mom wants to make this all huge and everything. She's kinda scaring me," Ash said.

Misty put her hands on her hips. "Ash, this is going to be our wedding day and it's going to perfect!"

Ash knocked on May's door He looked at Misty and nodded. "Did I say scaring? I mean that she's inspiring me!"

May opened the door and grinned. "There you guys are. This is going to be great! I have just the gowns in mind! Ash, I have just the Tuxedo in mind to make you look even more handsome then you already do! Alex, I know just how to make you look perfect! Chris, don't worry, if I don't know how to make a Furret look great then I don't know anything. I mean, I can make myself look perfect every day!"

After a few minutes, the group was in May's living room. May have offered everyone something to drink. Chris had requested coffee, to which Alex responded with a glare, saying he was hyper enough as it is.

May start by measuring Ash and then Misty.

"What are you going to do about their quills? Wouldn't it tear the back of any clothes apart?" Chris asked.

"I have just the thing! I know just how I can fit your tail to!" May replied.

By the time May had finished the others, she seemed almost nervous when she started to take Chris' measurements.

"What's wrong?" Chris asked.

"You're not going to make me hug your tail or do anything weird like that are you?" May asked.

"Is that why you've been avoiding me?" Chris asked.

"Well, I've heard that you did some weird things. Like that marshmallow thing," May said.

"I haven't done that in a while. I don't think Alex would want someone else hugging my tail. As for the coffee thing, I honestly get a bit hyper on caffeine. I guess I can't help it. I know it's obnoxious to a lot of people but, it's just the way I am now," Chris said.

"Yeah, I know. Some people might say that I'm you know not too smart. I mean, we can't all be geniuses," May said.

"Well, if you're able to do this designing, that's not something, a dumb person would be able to do," Alex said.

"We don't think you're stupid. You're just a bit hyper and don't always think things through at times," Ash said.

"Admit it guys, I'm not that bright. I'm sure some would say a Furret is perfect for me. Maybe it was, I dunno," May said.

"I know the feeling but we are what we are," Chris said.

While May measured Chris' tail, Alex watched intently.

"I guess I have avoided you too much. We can still be friends right? Same for you Ash. I still like you," May asked.

"Of course," Ash said.

"I think what he means is, you can look, you just can't touch," Chris said.

Alex nodded and May blushed as she finished the measurements.

"Don't worry; I'll make sure you all look great. These are going to be the best gowns and tuxedos ever," May said.

Everyone thanked May and they all left.

"Look but can't touch huh?" Misty asked.

Chris scratched the back of his neck. "It's just a figure of speech. You know, like, we can still be friends."

"I know that. I just don't want to encourage her," Misty said.

"Me, encourage?" Chris asked. If he had the ability to summon a halo around his head, he Ash did his best to break the tension. "Oh yeah, I forgot, we need to plan our bachelor parties!"

"No alcohol! Ash is too young. And Chris, well, If you're scary on caffeine," Misty said.

Chris grinned and stroked his chin. "Hmmm."

"I think what Chris means to say is, he agrees on a no drinking rule," Alex said.

Chris fidgeted and nodded. "Yes, of course."

"Well, maybe if you enjoy responsibly," Alex said.

"I don't think Furret and enjoy responsibly go in the same sentence," Misty said.

The group chuckled.

"Now, if you'll excuse us, we have some other business to take care of," Alex said.

"We do?" Chris asked.

Alex winked at Chris, who nodded with a smile.

"Of course," Misty said.

Chris and Alex walked off, leaving Misty and Ash. They saw Peter floating down the street towards them.

"Hey guys, want to talk about your wedding rings yet?" Peter asked.

"Yes we do," Misty said.

"We do?" Ash asked.

"*Yes*, we do," Misty said.

"Okay then," Ash said.

Misty retracted her ran a finger down Ash's face. "If you're getting cold feet, I can always ask a fire type to warm them up for you."

Ash grimmest and giggled. "Who said anything about cold feet? So, Peter, what type of gems do you have in mind? I only want the best for Misty."

Misty smiled as Ash started walking with Peter floating beside him. "Just wanted to make sure."

- - -

A day later, Ash and Misty were in Timothy's house.

Nina and Peter were there.

"Hey guys. Well, Ash, you said you wanted the best, so you're going to have it!" Peter said.

"You guys finished them that fast?" Misty asked.

"Not quite. But we thought you guys would love to see us making them," Peter said.

"That was thoughtful of you. We'd love to see that," Misty said.

Peter led Misty and Ash into another room where Nina and Timothy were waiting.

"Hey guys, how are you doing? You're going to love the gems we've found for you," Timothy said.

"I'm doing well. A little nervous but I'm getting there," Ash said.

"What he means to say is that he's great and can't wait for our wedding day," Misty said.

Timothy chuckled. "Yes, well, check out these."

Picking up a container from a shelf, Timothy pulled it down, showing Ash and Misty a collection of beautiful polished, shiny gems.

Ash pulled a few of them out, looking at them in awe.

"Where did you guys get these from?" Ash asked.

"Here and there," Nina said.

"They're beautiful," Misty said.

"Just wait until you see them once we made the rings," Timothy said

"So, you're going to do that design we discussed?" Ash asked.

"Yeppers!" Peter said.

Ash handed Timothy the gems and he and Misty sat down and waited it was quite the process as Nina started by carving each and every one of the gems into an intricate shape. Peter worked on the bands for the rings; he shaped the gold, combining both traditional and white gold into both of them. For a fleeting few seconds, Ash wondered if perhaps they were going too far. Then, he realized that Misty was worth the effort and those thoughts disappeared.

Once Peter had finished the bands and Nina the gems, Timothy went to work. He placed the gems with careful precision along the bands until each one glittered in the sunlight passing through the windows. Then, he handed them to Ash and Misty.

"It's amazing," Misty said

"They're perfect," Ash said. An idea formed in his head. "Now that we have the rings, maybe we can make this official?"

Ash knelt before Misty. "Misty, will you marry me?"

Misty smiled, leaned forward and hugged Ash. "I think you already know the answer to that. Of course I'll marry you!"

Ash slid Misty's ring onto her right ring finger (of which she retracted the claw) to make it official. They stood up and hugged.

"How can we repay you guys for this?" Ash asked.

"I'm just glad that you two are happy. That alone makes it worth the effort," Timothy said.

Peter and Nina embraced each other.

"I think we can agree with that," Peter said, Nina nodding.

- - -

After getting their Rings, Chris and Alex were walking home. Peter and Nina had made diamond rings for them. A warm sun shined overhead, the day clear and the sky a beautiful blue.

"So, you think you're ready for this?" Chris asked.

Alex looked at her ring. "Well, the rings do more or less make it official."

"Yes, well, that's true," Chris said.

Alex looked up into the sky, still happy that she was able to be out during the day.

"You okay, you seem a little nervous. I mean, you always seem a little hyper about something but you're different today," Alex said.

Chris looked back and forth. Alex wondered for a minute if Chris was looking for someone.

"Just a little nervous, that's all. I mean, this is all so new to me. We've come so far in the past year and a bit. If 18 months ago, you'd have told me that..."

Alex patted Chris on the shoulder. "I wouldn't believe it either and that includes for me."

"Matthew wanted to give me a bachelor party. They'll probably have Ash and mine together. Don't worry, I'll be good," Chris said.

"I trust you. And with all the younger people there, at least we can keep our no alcohol rule. I assume that's not an issue," Alex said.

Chris shrugged his shoulders. "It's not like I drank that much before. Even when I was human I didn't drink a lot."

Having reached their house, Alex swore she could hear someone inside. For a second, she wondered if they had an intruder. However, she doubted anyone could get away with breaking and entering, let alone theft with physic types around. Even Jessie, James and Meowth seemed to have renounced crime. Although without the pressure of having to succeed of face consequences when success never seemed to come, Alex had a feeling the trio didn't mind that all of this had freed them from that.

"How about I check first, just to be sure?" Chris asked.

"Okay but be careful," Alex said.

Chris nodded and winked. Alex was sure that Chris had something planned when he didn't suggest calling someone. She waited as he walked into the house. When he came back out a minute later, he was a grin on his face.

"It's fine," Chris said.

Alex followed Chris into the house. When she turned toward the living room, several people jumped, yelling surprise. Despite Alex having an idea that something was up, she was still surprised.

All of the girls from the village were there. Misty walked up to Alex first, followed by Deliah.

"Happy baby shower hon." Deliah said, giving Alex a kiss on the cheek.

(Before anyone gets any ideas... this is plutonic)

Alex looked back at Chris. "You planned this?"

Chris fidgeted. "Well sort of I, well, I wanted to show Whiskers about that sort of stuff and, I had some help and, well, I guess you could say I did."

Alex hugged Chris. "That was so sweet of you."

Chris blushed as much as one could with fur. "Well, you girls have fun. The guys and I are going to go for a walk or something. We'll be back in a little while."

Alex nodded and thanked Chris, would kissed her on the cheek before leaving.

Walking into the room, Alex greeted everyone with hugs and handshakes. Misty led Alex to a table where they had a collection of trays of food of all sorts.

"When did you guys get the time to make all of this?"

Maybel approached Alex. "Well, he had some time here and there."

The group soon began to get food and mingle; speaking of everything from what the baby might look like if it was a hybrid to projects some were working on.

Meanwhile, Chris was walking down the street when Ash ran up to him.

"So, how did it go?" Ash asked.

"I think she suspected something but well you know how I am," Chris said, shrugging his shoulders with a smile.

"I don't hold it against you. You're a Furret, it's just the way you are. I don't know if that thing changed us based on personality or not, but it seemed to have," Ash said.

"Yeah, I always was a little bit ... unusual. I mean, I wasn't as hyper before. My parents tell me that as a kid I was like this. Maybe this just helped to bring out that aspect of me," Chris said.

"I wouldn't want you to change who you are. I wouldn't want any Pokémon or human to change who they were, unless they had good reason to like if they were bad or something," Ash said.

"Thanks," Chris said.

"So, I've been thinking. I know you and Alex wanted to get your parents out here for all of this. I could ask Mewtwo to teleport them. That way they don't have to worry about someone following them," Ash said.

"You would do that for us?" Chris asked.

"Of course I would!" Ash said.

Chris felt an itch on his back. He looked at Ash's claws, but decided not to ask him for a back scratch. After the water cannon incident and Maybel almost flamethrowering him, Chris knew better.

"Thanks man, it means a lot," Chris said.

Looking around, Chris realized something.

"What's wrong?" Ash asked.

"For the longest time, I had the idea on my mind of going home and re-gaining my humanity. Now, it's different," Chris said.

"This is home now and this is who are," Ash said.

"Yeah, I do not think of going home any more. Maybe for visits but this is where I live now," Chris said.

Ash looked at his clawed hands. "I used to look at these and feel bad about not having human hands any more. Then I realized that I was so much closer to my Pokémon, especially Jean Luc. It's a gift being this way."

"Yeah, I mean I don't think of myself as a human trapped in this body anymore. This is who and what I am now. When I picture myself, I see a Furret. Besides, I get along with Whiskers a lot better now. She's like a daughter to me," Chris said.

Ash nodded. "Just like Jean Luc is like a brother to me now. He already was before but now it's almost official."

Matthew ran up to the duo when they passed by his house.

"Hey guys," Matthew said.

"Hey Matt," Chris said.

"How are you doing?" Ash asked.

"Fine, just fine. So, how are you two doing? You guys still need bachelor parties! I have just the thing planned. We could do a combo one for you guys," Matthew said.

"You're not going to have a girl dancing there are you? Misty would kill me if you did and she found out," Ash said.

"Don't worry, I'll be good," Matthew said.

"Hmmm," Chris said.

"What?" Matthew asked.

"You know, I still owe you coffee. Remember how I said I'd get it for the next month depending on how many asteroids we saw during the shower?" Chris said

"Err; I think you guys can come up with something else. I'm not sure if we're ready to go out into the world," Ash said.

"Just hang on Chris. I know you like to keep promises. I'm known you've wanted to let the world see you. But, not everyone will respond to us well," Matthew said.

"Tim said that some trainers might even try to capture us because we're technically rare. I mean it's not like I'm a legendary or anything. Let's face it, I'm not that strong. Why would anyone want to capture me? Forgive my ignorance and all; I never did become a trainer. Whiskers and Jack were always companions to me but I never intended to battle them," Chris asked.

"We're still rare. You're one of only three Furrets morphs in the world that we know of. Back when I was younger, I'd have jumped at the chance to capture something like we are. I wouldn't know, but there are a lot of kids just getting started that don't know better," Ash said.

"He's right Chris. Until the world is ready for us, we just have to hold on a little while longer," Matthew said.

"All right guys," Chris said.

"Although, you have reminded me of something. There is someone I need to talk to. He might be willing to perform our ceremony and do a favor for Tim and me," Ash said.

"What favor is that?" Chris asked.

"I ... should talk to him. I'd better hurry before it's too late," Ash said.

Ash ran off before Chris or Matthew could get in another word.

"So, why don't we discuss bachelor parties?" Matthew asked.

"A Furret and a Zangoose planning a bachelor party," Chris said with a chuckle.

"Yes I know what is this world coming to?" Matthew said.

"Something pretty interesting I'd say," Chris said.

Chris and Matthew walked towards and entered Matthew house where they would begin the plans.

- - -

Ash sat with Timothy in the church. Mewtwo was standing in front of them. They were alone and had closed the doors so they could have privacy.

"So, what favor is it you want of me?" Mewtwo asked.

"I need ... request that you contact Lugia for me. He'd be the perfect person to perform our ceremony," Ash said.

Mewtwo cocked his head. "Would a god not have better things to do with his time?"

"I know it's a lot to ask. Maybe it's not fair of me to ask such a favor but it would mean a lot," Ash said.

"I can attempt to contact him. However, I cannot guarantee a positive response," Mewtwo said.

Ash nodded. Mewtwo closed his eyes. Ash waited with trepidation He didn't want to let Misty down. After

A minute, he felt a presence in the room. It was as though Lugia were in the room with them. Not in a physical sense. However, Ash did feel as though there were an understanding.

"How surprising, he responded," Mewtwo said.

_"Cynicism does not become you."_

Mewtwo harrumphed but maintained the connection.

_"It is welcome to be in your presence Ash. I assure you that there are no additional charges despite the time of day and out distance."_

"Huh?" Ash asked.

"Sorry, just a random thought. Just seemed like something Chris would say," Timothy said.

_"Your friend's humor may test you. However, without it, would you life perhaps be far less interesting?"_

"Yes, I guess so," Timothy said.

"Lugia, I have a request. I know this might be asking a lot but much has happened since out last

Encounter," Ash said.

"Much indeed," Mewtwo said.

Ash felt a tingle in his temples. Then, he knew that Lugia knew about the village and the events.

_"It would be an honor to perform your ceremony"_

"Really? I mean, thank you. This is great. Misty will love this," Ash said.

_You're welcome. I will arrive soon._

As soon as it began, the presence vanished. Mewtwo opened his eyes and looked at Ash.

"I actually spoke with a legendary? That must be a good omen or something!" Timothy said

Mewtwo's eyes narrowed. "Or perhaps it means that the town will soon be in flames."

"Mewtwo!" Ash said.

"Thank you for your help," Timothy said.

Mewtwo nodded and left the church.

"Do you really think he'll show up?" Timothy said.

Ash nodded. "He's a legendary. If he says he's going to come, then it means he'll be here."

"We should tell the others," Timothy said.

"Maybe not. I don't want to cause a panic. I've gotten a lot of attention already. People might get jealous."

Timothy nodded. "Yeah, I can understand that. I hope Chris and Alex aren't jealous of you guys. I know his wedding is just as important but you're special and yours should be special too."

Ash nodded. "It should but while my wedding may mean the world to a lot of people, Chris and Alex's means the world to them"

"Well, either way, we're going to make sure this place is perfect for it. Your wedding ... both of the weddings will be ones to remember," Timothy said.

Ash patted Timothy's shoulder. "I know you will."

- - -

Two days later, Timothy was leading Ash towards the town hall that they'd constructed. It was still simple, but it had enough in it for a Bachelor party.

"You guys didn't have to do this you know," Ash said.

"Chris and Matthew did most of the planning to be honest," Timothy said.

"There's not going to be drinking of dancing girls is there? Misty would kill me if I watched a girl dance on a tabletop. And I mean it to," Ash said.

"No, don't worry," Timothy said.

"Are they going to be there? I mean, Chris should get one too," Ash asked.

"Don't worry, Matthew said that he has something planned. I think it's a bit more private. They've been friends for a long time. I have a feeling Jack will be with them. But that's tomorrow night. All the guys are going to be here!" Timothy said.

Having approached the Town Hall, Ash could hear music playing through the doors.

He gulped as he opened them and walked in to see all of the guys approach and shake his hand (once he retracted his claws) in turn. Inside there were tables full of food as well as the music playing. Chris and Matthew were there, as was Jack, who was wearing a leather jacket.

"I wanted to get someone to dance on the tables for you. You know, your last days as a single man and all," Jack said.

Chris chuckled and put his hands on Jack's shoulders. "I managed to talk him out of it."

"So what do you think?" Matthew asked.

Ash looked around. It felt good to see that everyone was in attendance. Although it did only push forward the idea that he was getting married for real.

"Looks like a lot of fun," Ash said.

"Everything okay?" Matthew asked

"Yes, I'm just a little nervous," Ash said.

"You're not alone. I never thought I'd put one of these on!" Chris said, motioning to his ring.

"That's part of the idea. You enjoy your last days as a Bachelor when you can get away with stuff. Because after that it's," Evergreen said as he approached Ash, "nag nag nag nag nag nag." he made motions of a mouth with his hand as he giggled.

Ash gulped.

Evergreen put his arm around Ash's shoulder. "I'm just kidding you."

"So, what's everyone waiting for? Let's have a party!" Matthew said.

"As there group parted and went for the tables, Jean Luc approached Ash."Hey."

"Hi," Ash said.

"So, you guys are really married?" Jean Luc asked.

Ash nodded. "Yep."

"Are ya ready for it?" Jean Luc asked.

Ash grunted. "Nope."

"Cold feet?" Jean Luc asked.

"As cold as though as though an ice type blasted me," Ash said.

"You guys can do it, I know you can," Jean Luc said. He grinned and playfully elbowed Ash. "Anyway, it's great that you guys ended up together. Isn't it better than her being with some other guy?" Jean Luc asked.

Ash nodded. "That's true."

"Then come on, let's party!" Jean Luc asked.

"Okay," Ash said.

Ash joined the group of other partiers. The party went on for several hours, there was eating and several people even got up and sang karaoke for a while, including Ash and Jean Luc singing a duet of Moon river.

As the night went on, a few of the partiers even had play battles outside. Ash and Jean Luc spared for a little while. Chris felt a little left out of those as he wasn't too strong. However, Matthew assured him that it was all right and that he needed to be good in other ways to be a husband and once the baby was born a father.

By the time it was dark, Ash and Jean Luc were the only two left outside. They did one more practice battle two the torch lights.

As dodged a thunderbolt before tackling Jean Luc to the ground, both laughing.

"I had a great time bud A part of me is going to miss this life. But another part of me is happy to Misty and I are going to be together and that nothing can come between us," Ash said.

"Think you guy's will be able to settle down?" Jean Luc asked.

Ash thought about it. "I don't know. It has been a while. I'm not sure I can give up battling. I don't know if Misty will want to either. Maybe once the world is ready to know about us."

"At least now, you'll be able to be together for what you do," Jean Luc said.

"For what *we* do," Ash said.

Ash picked himself up before helping Jean Luc up. He shook Jean Luc's hand and brought him in for a hug (Jean Luc being careful with Ash's quills).

"It's been a fun time bud," Ash said.

"It's still going to be a fun time. Just the start of a new chapter," Jean Luc said.

Ash smiled and nodded. "Come on, let's go home."

- - -

Early the next morning, fog shrouded most of the town as Timothy listened to the pitter patter of rain against the roof of his house. A flash of lightning followed by a loud crash of thunder had his sitting up.

He got out of bed and walked through the house and outside, allowing the water to stream across his bare back.

Today was the day that Ash was to be married. Timothy doubted Ash was sleeping too well either. Looking upward, Timothy saw a dark sky and wondered if the heavens were protesting; perhaps crying at what would be an end of an era for what was an important person to the world

Perhaps, Timothy wondered, it was just a coincidental storm. He'd built the church sturdy enough to withstand a typhoon, although he wasn't about to ask Mother Nature to test his theory.

Timothy knew of another possible reason for his insomnia. Seeing someone about to get married was only a reminder of the young woman he'd left behind. He'd never told her of his feelings for her. She'd occupied his thoughts on several occasions over the past several days.

Hearing someone approaching, Timothy turned to see Ash stepping up to him. Even after all this time, Timothy knew that some would joke that a ground type wouldn't be able to be out during the rain. Given that the rain had soaked Ash's quills and was dripping down his face, Timothy knew that theory was bullocks.

"Having trouble sleeping?" Timothy asked.

"Yeah, you?"

Timothy nodded. "Every time, I try to sleep, I think about ... her."

"A friend? Someone at the village?" Ash asked.

Timothy shook his head.

"Who?"

"Someone I knew back home. I wish we could be together," Timothy said.

A crash of thunder shook the buildings around them. Timothy wondered if someone were protesting his desire. He was after all, a different species then she now. Ash would tell him to ahead with it as it's what's inside that count. Chris or Alex would say that what others would think is irrelevant and for Timothy to do what he wanted. However, Timothy knew that it wasn't as easy when you were the one tasked with doing it.

"Have you tried to contact her?" Ash asked

"No, it wouldn't work now," Timothy said.

Ash didn't need to ask for clarification before Timothy relayed his concerns to Ash. Ash responded as Timothy expected.

"What if she thinks I'm a freak?" Timothy asked.

"There's only one way to find out."

Before either could say anything else, the rain stopped, the storm clouds clearing as though making way for someone.

"That's odd," Timothy said.

Ash looked up into the sky, his mouth agape. "I think he's here."

"He?"

"Lugia!"

Timothy felt apprehension. He was about to meet a legendary. Worry of wither or not he was worthy coursed through him. He worried about what would happen if he said or did something wrong! There was also the matter of Chris. Timothy worried, Chris would be jealous of Ash getting such an important person to attend his wedding. More so, Timothy worried Chris if anyone would say the wrong thing and end up a Furret shaped icicle.

"Come on!" Ash said.

Ash didn't need to tell Timothy twice. It seemed that if anything bad was going to happen, it was going to happen.

Timothy and Ash ran through the streets, splashing through the puddles the rain had left. When they reached the centre of town, Timothy looked up to see a sight he never expected to see in his life.

Others gathered as the impressive sight of Lugia grew from a speck in the sky into a recognizable form and then landed in the centre of town square, spreading his wings and regarding Ash.

Whether by instinct, respect or a combination of both, Timothy couldn't help but bow before what he saw as a majestic creature.

He looked to see others had bowed as well. For Timothy to see Maybel, an impressive creature as she was bowing was humbling.

"Lugia, you honor us with your presence," Ash said.

"I consider appearing for this monumental event an honor my child," Lugia said.

Lugia looked at Timothy. For a fleeting few seconds, Timothy feared Lugia was judging him for his sins or someone he'd done wrong years ago. What if, Timothy worried, this whole incident was judgment for those sins?

"There is no need for fear my child. I will not harm you. In fact, I have brought a surprise for you," Lugia said.

Timothy wondered what this surprise could be. When he saw a girl, -the- girl he and Ash had been talking about only minutes ago climb off of Lugia's back and stand on the ground, Timothy gasped. The girl regarded the group, disbelief in her eyes.

"They're ... real. This is incredible," she said

"It's really you," Timothy said.

The girl cocked her head, looking at Timothy. "Do I know you?"

"Yes ... no, I ... wanted to tell you for so long," Timothy said.

"Your voice, it's familiar. It sounds like someone I know that vanished months ago," she said.

"Sara, it's me Timothy."

Sara gasped when she heard the name. "That's ... impossible!"

Timothy shook his head. "I know it's hard to believe."

"But, you're not human."

"Anymore," Timothy said.

Timothy did his best to fill Sara in on what was going on

"I know it's hard to believe but here we are," Ash said.

Sara looked at Timothy. "If you're really Timothy then why didn't you say anything?"

Timothy looked down. "I was too shy. I wanted to say something for a long time I can prove it's me. I remember that you'd often eat lunch right at noon. You often had a Caesar salad and a carbonated water."

Sara folded her arms, but kept her tone soft. "That's true but it's still not proof."

Timothy stood up and walked toward Sara. "You also liked to wear a pink skirt and shirt. There was one time I let you see my Blastoise, well he was still a Squirtle at that point. You said he was cute. You were the one that suggested I name him Kame-sama when I couldn't think of a name."

Sara gasped. "Yes that's true but, how..."

"That was the only time I mustered the courage to speak to you. Ever since then I wanted to ask you out or at least something," Timothy said.

"Now you have the chance," Sara said.

"I was worried that you'd reject me. We're not the same species anymore," Timothy said.

"The truth is Timothy; I wanted to ask you out too. When you disappeared, I always regretted not having done that. I never expected a legendary Pokémon to land before me and tell me he could take me to someone that I lost. If I wasn't willing to give up a lot, I wouldn't have agreed to come with him. Now, I'm glad I did," Sara said.

"The question is..."

Timothy heard a splashing behind him and saw Chris standing there. "A member of the Justice League!"

"That's not what I meant," Timothy said.

"Who's this?" Sara asked.

"This is Chris; he's a friend of mine. He's a bit... odd," Timothy said.

"Nothing wrong with that," Sara said with a grin.

"I suppose not. As I was saying, the question is, what do we do next?" Timothy asked.

"If there's a way for me to become like you, I'm willing to undergo it," Sara said.

"Who's that? How did she ... whoa!" Chris said, apparently noticing Lugia for the first time. "Is that?"

"Yes my child," Lugia said.

"I don't know if I could ask you to do that. It's a major commitment," Timothy said.

Sara nodded. "Tim, I ... I'm willing to make that commitment for you."

"I'd say that's a yes," Ash said.

Timothy smiled and resisted hugging Sara. He silently wished for her to become as he had so he could hug her without having to hold back, lest he inadvertently harm her.

"You're sure?" Timothy asked.

Sara walked up to Timothy; put a hand on his chest and another on the back of his head before steeping on her toes and giving Timothy a kiss. "I'm sure."

- - -

Ash paced back and forth in his house. His wedding was only an hour away. He had his tuxedo on and was nervous.

"Ash, relax. If you don't stop pacing, you're going to wear a hole into the floor!" Jean Luc said.

"I can't help it! I keep thinking something's going to go wrong! Like I'm going to forget the ring, or I'm going to trip or something else," Ash said.

"Don't worry about it. Even if you say, make a mistake on your wedding vows, as long as you get the meaning across that's what matters," Jean Luc said.

"Wedding vows?" Ash asked his face turning beat red. "Um, yeah, err ... oh oh."

Across town, Misty was pacing back and forth in May's house, having just put on her wedding dress.

"Sit down girl, before you wear the floor to the ground. I was worried enough about the dresses. But pacing didn't do anything to fix that!" May said.

"Easy for you to say, you're not the one getting married! Something's going to go wrong. When I throw the bouquet, it's going to fall apart or I'll forget my vows, or I'll drop the ring or trip or..."

"And they say my species is the hyper one. Even if something goes wrong, won't it give you stories to tell for years to come?" May asked.

Misty nodded. "Yes, I guess it will. But, I'd see bloopers of people's weddings and sometimes it seems funny. When it's *my* wedding, I want it to be one to remember!"

May chuckled. "You have a bunch of Pokémorph and a legendary. Not to mention a Pokémon most had never heard of and the cutest little thing out there to be a ring bearer and you're worried people won't remember?"

Misty shrugged her shoulders. "Good point."

At Chris' house, Chris was helping Whiskers to get ready.

"You're going to make a beautiful flower girl," Chris said.

"What I have to do? What if I forget?" Whiskers asked.

"Don't worry about it, you'll do fine. You carry the flowers in front of Misty and spread them around as she walks toward the Alter," Chris said.

"Do you do anything?" Whiskers asked.

"No, but I will soon, don't worry," Chris said.

"What about Jack, does he get do to anything?" Whiskers asked.

Chris smiled. "I think your brother's a little in awe of Lugia to do anything. Most of the flying types feel the same way."

"Okay. Don't worry, I'll do my best!" Whiskers said.

Meanwhile, Ash was sitting down with several pieces of paper he'd crumpled into balls around him.

"She's going to kill me if I don't come up with something perfect!" Ash said.

"Um ... Ash, we have to get going!" Jean Luc said.

Ash grimmest. "Um err ... I hope she makes it quick and painless!"

"Don't worry; just say what comes to mind. No one expects it to be perfect," Jean Luc said.

Ash stood up and nodded. "We'd better get going then."

When they walked outside, they could hear the bells of the church ringing echoing throughout the town. The sound sent shivers down Ash's spine as it added to the sense of reality to the situation. He always knew this day would come. Of course, he didn't think it would come this early in his life.

"You're not getting cold feet are you?" Jean Luc asked.

"No ... no, of course not!" Ash said.

"Let's go then," Jean Luc said.

A crowd had gathered around the steps leading into the church. All were waiting in anticipation for the couple to arrive.

Deliah in particular was nervous.

"I hope we did enough. We should have news crews or something!" Deliah said.

Giovanni put his hands on Deliah's shoulders. "We're done fine. Besides, from what I saw, that cake you made is going to make a lot of people happy."

"I wish Misty's parents had been here to see this. Her sisters were too jealous to attend," Deliah said.

"We'll find her parents," Giovanni said.

The sound of the crowd clapping altered the duo to the arrival of the couple. Sabrina and May were leading Misty while Jean Luc was leading Ash. Mew floated down behind the group, seeming to giggle while Chris led Whiskers, hugging her before joining the others.

Everyone filed into the church where they found Lugia standing at the Altar, looking both somber and majestic at the same time. Phanpy and Max were seated at the front, both looking back with anticipation and they awaited Ash and Misty.

Their anticipation came to a close when Evergreen and Meowth opened the doors. Most had been surprised when Ash had decided to allow Meowth to be an usher; however, he'd mellowed out and appeared to be trustworthy.

The group stood as the Ash and Misty walked in.

Whiskers walked ahead of Misty with Mew floating beside her as they made their way down the aisle. Misty and Ash were close behind, Jean Luc, May and Sabrina behind them.

When everyone had arrived at their positions, everyone sat down.

Lugia regarded Ash and Misty with a smile.

"I see that everyone is here this is an honor that I'm more than happy to perform. We are here to unite Ash Ketchum and Misty Waterflower in holy matrimony," Lugia said.

Wither or not it was appropriate, the crowed erupted into applause.

Ash stood there, watching everyone and knowing that all eyes were on him and Misty. He went through potential wedding vows in his head. There were a lot of things that he knew that he could say but he still wasn't sure which one would be the most appropriate.

"Jean Luc, is there anything you'd like to say?" Lugia asked.

Ash looked at Jean Luc, worried that he might say something embarrassing.

Jean Luc smiled and nodded.

"When I first met Ash, I had no idea on what we were setting out on. There were good times, bad times and times that were just plain weird. Ash surprised me, and sometimes scared me," Jean Luc said, winking at Ash, who blushed in response. Several people in the group giggled in response.

"But, Ash also taught me to never give up, wither that be in training, saving someone or their Pokémon or even when it came to Misty nagging him to take a bath," Jean Luc said.

The group giggled again. Ash might have objected, but another wink from Jean Luc assured Ash that this was all in good fun.

"Some might say that Ash and Misty were meant for each other, as though drawn together by destiny. Others would say they argued like an old married couple. So, why don't we make it official?" Jean Luc said.

Lugia cocked his head. "A ... interesting speech."Misty, I believe that you prepared your own weddings vows."

"Yes, I did," Misty said.

Ash could tell her tone was serious, which set off several oh boy bells in his head. If she was going to bring the house done either in tears of joy or make everyone erupt in applause, he knew that if he didn't come up with something just as good, she'd mallet him for sure. Ash could only imagine the blooper reels that would show up on.

Misty looked right into Ash's eyes. "I'm sure you remember the stream where we first met?"

"How could I forget?" Ash asked.

"I would go down there every day to fish. Despite being terrified of them, I always prayed I'd catch a Gyarados. I needed to prove that I was just as good as my sisters. Eventually, fate sent me that Gyarados in a form I never expected. You were that Gyarados," Misty said.

_Oh oh, that was good. Great, I'd better come up with something just as good. Oh boy._

Ash grinned and Misty smiled.

"Well my son, I'm sure the crowd would like to hear your vows," Lugia said.

"I know I would," Misty said.

Ash looked to the crowd. Deliah smiled and waved at him while Giovanni smiled and nodded

_Okay, I can do. Say what's in my heart. How hard can that be? Okay, here goes nothing..._

"Misty, when we first met, I accidently ruined your bike. I'm remembered how you stuck with me, wanting to stay until I fixed it or gave you a new one. Yet, in time, I found that I didn't want to fix it if it meant you would leave. Heh, looks like I'm never going to fix it now and I couldn't be happier," Ash said.

Gulping, Ash worried that he hadn't of done well enough. When he looked into Misty's eyes and saw her smiled, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Excellent. Now, do we have the rings?" Lugia said.

Mew floated over and presented the rings.

"Ash Ketchum, do you take Misty Waterflower in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer to death do you part?" Lugia asked.

Lugia handed Ash Misty's ring. Ash approached Misty and slid the ring onto her finger.

"I do," Ash said.

"Misty Waterflower, do you take Ash Ketchum in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, to death do you part?" Lugia asked, handing Misty Ash's ring.

"I do," Misty said, sliding the ring onto Ash's finger.

"Then, unless anyone objects..."

Everyone remained silent.

"Then, by the power invested in me by God, I pronounce you Husband and Wife, you may now kiss the bride," Lugia said.

Ash and Misty didn't waste any time before kissing each other. When they stepped down from the altar, Whiskers handed Misty the flowers. Misty and Ash ran out of the church, all of the female members (save for Alex and Deliah) following them as they knew what was coming next.

When they were outside, Misty threw the flowers back into the crowd.

Sara was the one to catch the flowers. She looked back at Timothy with a wink afterward.

- - -

Sara walked with Timothy down the street.

"You're sure about this?" Timothy asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. I feel out of place being the only human here. Besides, at least this way we'll be able to be together properly," Sara said.

"I hope the others will approve. I mean, we don't have a counsel for this sort of thing or anything but doing this to someone on purpose, other than to save their life seems extreme. Although to have someone to be with would make it acceptable in my books," Timothy said.

"So, what is it you guys do around here? Are you ever going to let the world know about this town of yours?" Sara asked.

"Soon, I think. We're planning on building a coliseum and gym. That way we can hold official matches," Timothy said.

"I've heard of towns with a theme, never everyone being a human/Pokémon hybrid so it's something to get you started. Just imagine how people will react," Sara said.

Having arrived in the centre of town, they saw several people willing about. Sara looked at the dome Timothy had constructed around the Meteor.

"I think some people will fear us while others might envy us. A lot of trainers would see being this way as a gift. Yet, there's the risk that some might use it to gain power for evil. There's also the risk that some might see us as monsters and want to exterminate us," Timothy said.

"I don't understand why anyone would do that. Besides, you ... we can defend ourselves. So, is it in there?" Sara asked.

Timothy nodded. "You're sure about this?"

"I've been sure since I found out that you were all right and finding out what had happened to you. So, what do I have to do?" Sara asked.

Timothy, seeing Maybel was in the area, asked her to get Evergreen and Joy. When they arrived, they seemed skeptical.

"Your friend is healthy, I'm not sure we should risk this," Joy said.

"It didn't hurt anyone," Timothy said.

"Using it for these reasons may not be wise. However, your friend does know about this place. Keeping it secret may be difficult. Perhaps, if she does wish to join us, we should allow her to," Evergreen said.

"Please, understand that from what we've seen, once you change, there's no going back. You need to be certain this is what you want," Joy said.

Sara nodded the put her right hand on Timothy's chest. "It is."

Evergreen folded his arms and nodded. "Very well then. We will not hold you back if this are what you desire."

Sara nodded her and Timothy walked to the door to the dome, Timothy opening it for her. Taking a deep breath, Sara and Timothy walked in, Timothy closing the door behind them.

Evergreen and Joy waited, wondering what form Sara would end up in. She was the first that they'd be changing on purpose where they didn't need to do it to save her life.

After a few minutes, the door opened. Timothy was the first to emerge, Joy and Evergreen looking at him intently.

"Well?" Evergreen asked.

Timothy smiled and stepped aside to allow Sara in her new to emerge. Before the eyes of Evergreen, Timothy and Joy, Sara stepped out, having become a beautiful Machamp like Timothy. However, being female, Sara was more slender and curvaceous. Her muscles, while not as large as Timothy's, were still impressive.

"Sara?" Evergreen asked.

Sara nodded, finally allowing Timothy to hug her, something she'd been waiting for him to do since her arrival.

"You look great," Timothy said.

"I feel great," Sara said.

"Welcome to our town," Timothy said.

- - -

Under a star filled sky with a full moon on a cool evening, Chris and Alex stood with Ash and Mewtwo.

"This is safe right? When I called my parents and told them about this, they were worried it was dangerous," Alex said.

"It's safe, I've used teleport before," Ash said.

"I trust you guys. I'd have preferred to go into town and get them myself but Tim said that wasn't a good idea," Chris said.

Alex put an arm around Chris and smiled. "Soon Whiskers. Don't worry; I know you're looking forward to letting the world know."

Chris patted Alex's hand and nodded. "We're ready."

Mewtwo closed his eyes. Before the group four lights appeared that formed into the shapes of humans. Those four shapes took familiar forms before they cooled into the forms of Chris and Alex's parents.

"Mom, Dad!" Chris and Alex said.

"Chris? Is that really you?" Chris' mother asked.

Chris nodded. "Yes, it's me in the flesh err fur."

Alex parents walked over to her, seeming unsure of her.

"I know I'm technically a dark now, but when I said that I'm still me, I mean it. Besides, there more than just me now," Alex said, putting a hand on her belly.

"Alex, you're ... pregnant?" Alex's mother said.

With an awkward smiled, Alex nodded. "Surprise."

"Who's the father?" Alex's father asked.

"You're looking at him," Chris said.

Chris' parents gasped "We're going to be grandparents!"

"You always said that you weren't planning on getting married," Chris' father said.

Chris shrugged his shoulders. "Things change."

Chris' parent's curiosity got the better of them and Chris' mother touched Chris' tail. "In more ways than one."

"Aww, Mom, there's people watching," Chris said.

Ash chuckled. "It's okay, I can relate and I mean it."

"So," Alex's father started. "The father of my grandchild is a Furret. My sisters' daughter has one and he's rather shall we say, active."

"Sounds like a fun guy," Chris said.

Alex patted Chris on the back. "We're just as human as we are Pokémon."

Chris mother finally hugged Chris "I'm just glad that you're all right and to see you again. Seeing you like this rather than just hearing about it makes it seem so much more real."

"Chris wanted to see you guys in person but the others cautioned him of it," Alex said.

"He was like that as a kid. Always wanted to try things out and wondering what would happen if he did this or that. Sometimes, heck a lot of times, without supervision, he could have gotten into a lot of trouble," Chris' mother said.

"I guess being this way has sort of brought that side out in me again," Chris chuckled.

"Oh?" Alex's father asked.

"Well let's see there was the taking a shower with a Blastoise and using a Charizard tail as a campfire for two," Ash said.

Chris grinned. "Don't worry, I stopped doing those things."

"Seriously guy's, he'll make a great father. When our child needs someone with energy to keep him or her busy, I think Chris will do nicely," Alex said.

"I do pretty well with Whiskers and Jack," Chris said.

"How are they doing?" Chris' mother said.

"I guess you could say that they've grown," Chris said.

- - -

Chris' wedding day had arrived and he was nervous. He was in Timothy's house, having just put on his tuxedo.

"How do I look? Is everything all right? Is my tail raised properly?" Chris asked.

May had managed to add a feature to Chris' tuxedo that raised his tail behind him. She said that it made him look handsome.

"You look good ... great. Now, do you have your vows prepared?"

Chris reached into a front pocket. Pulling out a piece a paper. He cleared his throat and smiled.

"How does this sound?" Chris started.

Timothy stood at attention. "Go ahead."

"Okay. You're Alex. I mean, you know like um err..."

Timothy chuckled. "Relax man. I know what you meant. Just take a deep breath."

Chris nodded and did so. "All right. When we first met, I remember you saying I was perhaps a little too silly for you. However, we still maintained a good friendship. Then, when all of this business with the meteor happened and I became the epitome of that silliness, you were always there for me. You always tolerated my short attention span and impulsiveness and made me enjoy being this way. Now, even if I could imagine not being this way, I feel a bond with you strong enough that I couldn't imagine you not being there. Why not make it official?" Chris said.

Timothy nodded.

"How's that sound?" Chris said.

"Brings a tear to my eye. Now, let's go. Being late to your own wedding wouldn't look good," Timothy said.

Chris looked at the clock on the wall. "Oh boy."

Across town, Alex was getting the last bits of her wedding dress on while Sara watched.

"Do I look all right?" Alex asked.

"You look fine, you smell fine and you sound fine. You're supposed to look large, you're pregnant but the gown hides it pretty well," Sara said.

Alex nodded. "Okay, okay. So, what do you think of my wedding vows?"

"You haven't told us them yet," Maybel (who was acting as a second bridesmaid) said.

Alex would have blushed if her fur color allowed it.

"Sorry, I'm just a little nervous," Alex said.

"That's all right Whiskers. Just tell us you vows," Maybel said.

"Okay, all right. I'm going to say that, when I first met Chris, I thought he was a little immature yet he seemed to have something inside of him. Now, I *know* he's immature and that he's just a big kid at heart. Who better to be the father of our children and to help keep me young at heart?"

Maybel and Sara nodded.

"Was that okay? I know it's short, but I hope it's all right," Alex said.

"Whiskers, that's fine. It doesn't have to be long or special. As they say, it's the thought that counts," Maybel said.

"Anyway, it's time, we need to get going!" Sara said.

Alex gasped, deep another deep breath and the trio walked out of the house and made their way to the church. The reality of the situation set in for Alex when she saw everyone stand for her, Azurill standing before her in a cute dress and holding a bouquet of flowers, Mewtwo at the Altar in a Tuxedo and Chris standing to his left, watching Alex with a smile on his face.

She walked down the aisle, seeing Phanpy at the front as well as her and Chris' parents (Mewtwo having since teleported all four of them). Alex looked at her parents and they exchanged nods before she locked eyes with Chris. With that, she knew she was ready for this.

- - -

Pike Chance walked along a trail leading through the woods. On his right shoulder was his female Pikachu, Amper. Pike had adopted Amper two years before and they'd since close.

Having acquired some time off from work, Pike was taking the time to do some hiking as well as exploring. Taking in a deep breath of the fresh air, Pike sighed, a sigh of happiness.

"Isn't it beautiful? It's nice to get a break from the stale air of the office," Pike said.

Although Pike wasn't sure she understood what an office was, Amper replied with a pika pika to show she knew what he meant.

Amper's ears went alert. Pike noticed this and wondered what she'd heard.

"What did you hear?" Pike asked.

Amper replied in her language, one Pike wished he could understand. When Amper pointed in a direction, Pike decided to follow it. Even if it was something dangerous, he felt that Amper could protect him and if necessary, he would protect her.

The ground crunched under Pike's feet as he left the trail. A cold breeze blew across the woods, rustling the trees. It was almost as though the air was sending a warning telling Pike to stay back, that there was something that it didn't want him to see. Pike realized that those thoughts were probably more superstition then anything. If he was younger, he might have continued on for the promise of adventure. As an adult, it was more a curiosity. He'd heard of disappearances in this area. Perhaps, he wondered, he could solve them and reunite those people with their families.

After chuckled when Pike told her what he was thinking.

"Yeah, I know, I'm acting like I'm some crime fighter or something. But I know you heard something and you'd never steer me wrong," Pike said.

Pike followed the direction Amper had sent him in until he heard the sounds as well. It sounded like people talking. Pike didn't know of any camps or towns in this area, so it seemed unusual that there would be people there.

When he came to the edge of the forest (where there should not have been an edge) and saw a group of houses before him, Pike wondered what was happening.

He walked into the town, hoping to find a motel to stay at or at least somewhere to get food.

When he saw what looked like two people in Pokémon costumes, Pike looked at Amper.

"This some sort of convention or something?" Pike asked.

Amper shook her head. Something about the way she moved and the way those costumed people were moving wasn't right.

"Hello!" Pike said.

The two people, clad in clothes over what Pike needed to believe were costumes, looked at Pike. They were wearing a costume of a female Charizard and male Charizard.

"I don't remember seeing this town on the map. Where am I? How come you guys are wearing Pokémon costumes? How did you get them to look so real?" Pike asked.

The two Charizard looked at each other. Amper said something and the Charizard looked at her.

"I assure you, we are real and yes, these aren't costumes," the male said.

"How did you? What's going on here?" Pike asked.

"This isn't good," the female Charizard said.

Pike looked back and forth. He saw other of these creatures moving toward him. "Look, maybe I should be going. I must have taken a wrong turn."

"Wait, you can't tell anyone about this place," the male Charizard said.

Amper said something and Pike saw her cheeks spark. What looked like a Gengar floated over to Pike.

"Do not attack him. Maybe we can explain," the Gengar said.

"A talking ghost? That's no costume, unless you've learned how to hover," Pike said, backing away step by step.

"He's going to run, we can restrain him," the male Charizard said.

The next of the creatures to join the group was a male Espeon. Pike wasn't sure, but something told him he could trust this creature. "Do not be alarmed by our appearances. We bear you no hostile intent."

"Okay, I know that means *you* don't want to hurt me but your friends are scaring me. And," Pike said, taking on a more serious. "I won't let you hurt Amper. She's my companion and no one lays a finger on her unless they want to answer to me."

Pike knew he was being foolish, heck he was being down right suicidal. However, he wasn't going to let them have Amper (assuming they decided they wanted her) without a fight.

"I assure you, we do not wish to harm your Pikachu. I have Pikachu friends. I would never harm one. I also sense your love for her and hers for you. Perhaps, we can help each other?" The Espeon said.

"What do you mean? Who are you people?" Pike asked.

"Allow us to explain ourselves. As a gesture of good will, I will tell you my name, it's Ness. As another gesture of good will, I will not read your name from your mind. Please, introduce yourself," Ness said.

"My name is Pike."

A short while later, Pike was sitting in the centre of town. With permission from Timothy, Evergreen and Ash, Ness had explained the situation to Pike.

"That's incredible," Pike said.

A question was forming in Pike's mind. One that he hoped was on Amper's mind as well.

"I could use this thing to become like you guys?" Pike asked.

Evergreen nodded. As he'd explained to Sara, he did the same to Pike.

"I know what you're saying. I mean, I'm in no rush to go back to my job. Heck, I'd be lying if I said I didn't at least sometimes wish I was a Pikachu like Amper or that she was human," Pike said.

Amper replied, her tone happy. Ash was all too pleased to say that she felt the same way.

"If we could meet each other half way, neither of us would totally have to give up being what we are. If Amper wants to do this, I'm in," Pike said.

"You have to be sure of this as there's no going back," Evergreen said.

Pike chuckled. "Okay, doing it for a woman is far from new when it comes to guys. However, I do love Amper, and want to be with her. I feel like its destiny if such a thing exists."

Amper said something. Ash translated that Amper wanted to go through with it.

Pike petted Amper and held her tight. Evergreen opened the door to the dome and Pike walked in, allowing Amper to walk on the ground to his right.

When the door opened minutes later, two Pikachu morphs walked out. A cute couple that looked all too happy to be this way and with each other.

"You look great. I'm sure Jean Luc and his girlfriend will love to know they have a couple of Pika-pals," Ash said.

Pike and Amper hugged and kissed.

"I think we'd be more than happy to meet them," Pike said.

Amper smiled and nodded.

"Well then, I welcome you two to Azure Town," Evergreen said.

- - -

Ash, Misty, Timothy, Ness and Chris (who was holding his one month old son) had gathered in a grove a moderate distance from Azure Town. They were waiting for a group of reporters that they had arranged to meet via a letter to announce them to the world.

"Well Chris, you're the one that's been waiting to do this almost from day one, I hope it was the right thing to do," Timothy said.

"We voted in favor of it. Besides, we can't hide forever. Sooner or later, someone is going to find us. I'd rather it happen this way then some crazy person stumbles upon us and attack," Chris said.

The group heard the sound of footsteps and they readied themselves.

First one reporter emerged, and then another and another until the group was facing a dozen of them.

"My God, they're real," the first reporter said.

After a flurry of murmurs from the reporters, lights were on the group and cameras were rolling.

"I know this is a shock to all of you," Ash said.

Chris' son, who'd been born a Sneasel like his mother seemed upset by the noise. Chris petted him to sooth him.

"It's all right, they won't hurt us," Chris said.

The first reporter stepped forward, directing his microphone toward Ash.

"First thing is first, who are you people and where did you come from?"

Ash took a deep breath. "We didn't come from anyway, not really."

Several other reporters began asking questions, one followed by another.

"Did you evolve from other Pokémon?"

"Did you evolve from humans?"

"Are you from another planet?"

"Are you from the future?"

"Are you able to reproduce?"

"I think my friend is evidence of that. He's holding his son, who was born from him and his wife, who is a humanoid Sneasel," Ash said.

Several of the reporters approached Chris, upsetting the baby. Misty told them to give the duo some space.

"You need to treat him as you would a human baby," Misty said.

A flurry of apologies followed.

As began to tell the tale of how they and their village came to be. The reporters seemed fascinated with this and more than one wanted a tour of the village.

"Why didn't you seek medical help when this happened?" One reporter asked of Chris.

"We were scared. We didn't know why this had happened to us. For all we knew, it was contagious. We also didn't know how people would perceive us. I wanted to go home, but others warned me that someone might try to capture me or even attempt experiments on me. The idea was not one I enjoyed thinking about."

"What sort of abilities do you have? Did you all used to be human?" Another reporter asked.

"No, I was what you would call a normal Espeon before my encounter with the meteor I have the same abilities as I did before," Ness said.

"I'm thinking of a number between..."

"Two-Hundred and sixty seven," Ness said.

"That's incredible," the reporter said, blushing.

Another reporter stood forward. "If you are able to use your abilities and have a humanoid form, some might feel threatened by you."

The reporter motioned toward Timothy.

"You for example, with your strength, you'd be more powerful then several people put together. Some might be worried by that," the reporter said Tim nodded. "I would never use my abilities to harm people. While it's true that some of us are interesting in battling, we do it for the same reasons Pokémon battle."

"We are also interested in intellectual pursuits," Ness said.

"I'm not sure I understand do you consider yourself Pokémon or human?" The reporter asked.

"We're both," Ash said.

"So, what do you do to pass the time?" Another reporter asked.

"We do a lot of things. A lot of us have roles in our town, jobs if you will. I've spent a lot of my time in construction," Timothy said.

"And Misty and I dig tunnels to help with extracting minerals and metals for construction," Ash said.

"Now that you've revealed yourself to the world, what do you think is next?" Yet another reporter asked.

"We want to become an official town. First however, we'd like to see what people think of us. That's why we don't want to reveal out location. We are not out to hurt anyone. We consider being this way a gift but we don't feel that we're better that humans or Pokémon," Ash said.

"I also don't want my son to have to grow up in secret or in hiding. I want him to see the world without having to afraid or people being afraid of us," Chris said.

"Well, it should be interesting to see what people think," the reporter said.

With that, it was complete. The initial unveiling of the town was done. The reporters talked to the group for a while before they went their separate ways and Ness teleported the group back to the town.

- - -

Two weeks after the report reports were starting to filter into the town. From contacts via the telephone, the townspeople found out that the world had mixed reactions to their existence.

Some people feared them, worrying that they'd use their abilities to try and take over the world.

Others envied them and wanted to become morphs themselves.

Yet others were interested in them for battling purposes, seeing them as ultra rare (and in some cases, one of a kind) Pokémon that no trainer could resist.

The townspeople didn't like the idea of that, even if most possessed the instinct to battle. If anything, they wanted to make it clear to the rest of the world that they didn't want anyone trying to capture them.

To help show themselves as people, the town council decided to allow a single reporter to tour the town. However, they also agreed that teleporting that reporter would be better as to keep the town's location a secret until they knew doing otherwise was safe.

Ash and Evergreen were walking toward the centre of town, where a group of the townspeople were waiting for the reporter.

"If we show them that we have jobs just like humans, hopefully, they'll learn that we're just like them, just different that's all," Ash said.

"Did you talk to Wallace?" Evergreen asked.

"Yes, he and the rangers wanted to construct a training ground," Ash said.

Evergreen nodded. "I don't see any reason why not. However, it was a clever idea for them to use the meteor."

"I can't take all of the credit. I noticed that the injured Pokémon responded better to our Nurse Joy so when I asked them about becoming like us in order to help injured and ill Pokémon, they volunteered quickly," Ash said.

Ash and Evergreen were at the centre of town. Mewtwo used his ability to teleport the reporter (who they'd selected by drawing strings) after they confirmed the reporter was ready via the telephone.

The reporter, a young woman named Wyonna stood before the group, awe on her face.

"Welcome to our town," Evergreen said.

"It looks just like any other town. This is amazing. I'm actually meeting real live Pokémon people," Wyonna said.

"We wanted to show you what our life is like here. We know that some people are afraid of us and other envy us," Ash said.

"Some trainers have expressed interest in recruiting some of you to fight for them," Wyonna said.

Ash nodded. "We don't know if that would be illegal. While we do have a similar instinct to battle, we wouldn't want that to happen to us."

"We are however constructing a gym in hopes that we can become an official town some day. Ash suggested we build a coliseum," Evergreen said.

"It wasn't just me. Tim suggested it as well. He seemed eager to try to construct it as a test of his construction abilities," Ash said.

"Fascinating. I know the other reporters have asked questions but I really would like to know. What it does it feel like to be what have people called it, a Pokémorph as compared to being a human?" Wyonna asked.

"It's different for all of us. It's improved our relationship with our Pokémon. Jean Luc and I were already best buds, like brothers even. Now, it's more official."

"Jean Luc?" Wyonna asked.

"My Pikachu," Ash said

"Fascinating. You're a ground type and he's an electric. Is there any tension because of that?" Wyonna asked.

"We joke with each other. But, we don't see each other as competition if that's what you mean," Ash said.

"I'd like to meet him if that's all right. Where is he now?" Wyonna asked.

"He's installing some wiring in one of the houses. He's an electrician now," Ash said.

Wyonna gave a soft chuckle "An ideal job for a Pikachu. So, what do you do to keep busy?"

"Well, I use my digging ability to mine minerals and other material. I feel at home underground now," Ash said.

Wyonna nodded and Ash and Evergreen began the tour of the village. Evergreen showed Wyonna his lab, making it a point to say that he and his team were still scientists.

The tour came to a building Timothy had constructed as a Dojo to train his and other fighting types as well as a place for them to exercise and spar.

Wyonna watched Bruce sparing with Timothy. When they were finished, she approached Timothy.

"That was some impressive moves you were doing there," Wyonna said.

Timothy nodded. "We train hard. As fighting types, battling is a part of what we are. Don't get me wrong, there is much more to us then fighting. For example, Bruce enjoys poetry, both reading and writing"

"Awww Tim, I didn't want you to, I mean, I not that good," Bruce said.

Wyonna looked around, seeing a Snorlax (who appeared similar to a sumo wrestler) and a Scyther.

"As you can see, other types train here as well," Timothy said.

"It would be interesting to see some matches some times," Wyonna said.

"I've heard that you have a Blastoise. What does he do?" Wyonna said.

"He's a fire fighter along with Ash's Squirtle," Timothy said.

Ash nodded. "It seemed to make sense."

"With your strength, construction must be interesting," Wyonna asked of Timothy.

Timothy nodded and flexed his muscles "As I said, there's much more to us then fighting."

Wyonna smiled at the sight of Timothy's muscles. "What would you say to the ladies that might be ... interested?"

Sara walked into the room, a grin on her face. "I'd say he's taken," she said, kissing Timothy.

Wyonna chuckled.

Ash and Evergreen continued the tour. They passed by a series of buildings, including a Club where Totodile worked as DJ and Persian worked as a bouncer. Wyonna admitted upon seeing Persian in a suit that he looked handsome in it. They also passed by the tavern, which Tracey's Venonat was the owner and Marill, a host.

Wyonna was quickly learning that despite her initial wonder at how a Pokémon could own or operate an establishment that despite their differences, the Townspeople were in the end, not that different.

The tour led to Chris' house where Wyonna learned that Chris acted as a morale officer of sorts. His casual demeanor and (at least in his opinion) cute appearance seemed to help people to open up to him.

Wyonna was also happy to have the chance to hold Chris and Alex's baby boy, who they'd, named Jake. She was fascinated to learn that Jake had hatched from an egg rather than Alex carrying him to term. Given that he was born with claws, Alex preferred the idea of an egg birth.

Alex herself had decided to become a teacher to help teach the kids in the village.

Peter's house was next in the tour. Wyonna was nervous of him at first. She had a slight fear of ghost types after hearing stories of haunted houses.

"In a sense, this house *is* haunted," Peter said, sticking out his tongue.

"And to think that you're a Psychiatrist," Nina said

"You're a Psychiatrist?" Wyonna asked.

"Yep, along with Sabrina and Alakazam," Peter said.

"Are you able to use those moves that let you to be able to see into someone's dreams?" Wyonna asked.

Peter grinned. "Yes but I only eat the bad ones to rid people of them. They taste just like chicken."

Nina rolled her eyes. "Leave the comedy to Haunter, he's the comedian."

Wyonna grinned. "So, tell me Peter, how did you become a ghost type?"

"....."

"He doesn't tell any of us why," Ash lied on the spot, "We're not even sure if he knows."

"I... see... Well, thank you for letting me into your house," Wyonna said.

"Wait before you go, here's a souvenir," Nina said.

Nine handed Wyonna a gem that she'd made.

"It's beautiful, thank you," Wyonna said.

"You're welcome," Nina said.

The next step on the tour was a shop they'd constructed for May, who showed them all of the clothes she'd made and was making that she'd specially fit for the morphs. Brendon was at the store, May fitting him for a pair of pants for his job as a technician.

Ash concluded the tour by showing Wyonna their church, where Mewtwo was the priest. He explained to her that this position had allowed him to find peace within himself. He however was secretive about his origins, preferring not to discuss them.

When Wyonna went back to the centre of town, Giovanni was there as well as Jean Luc (who was wearing overalls.)

"Hello, I'm the PR manager for Azure Town. So, what did you think of our town?"

"You have a fascinating town here. It's amazing how you guys are all unique to your Pokémon species yet at the same time, still human," Wyonna said.

"Yes, we are indeed an interesting group," Giovanni said.

"They said you wanted to meet me," Jean Luc said.

Wyonna shook Jean Luc's hand. "Yes, I was curious what it was like for you, someone that started off as a natural Pokémon."

"It's great. I feel like my bond with humans is even stronger. I understand how humans feel and those that have change understand that we feel. I've been able to do thing I'd never before thought possible. Sure, I miss riding on Ash's shoulder, but I think it's a worthy trade off," Jean Luc said.

"That's good to hear. Well, it seems I have a lot to report. Thank you for letting me see your village."

"You're welcome," Ash said.

With that, Mewtwo (who'd since left the church) teleported Wyonna back to where she started.

"Well, that went well," Evergreen said.

"I hope that once people know that we're not that different that we won't have to worry about letting others know where we are any more," Ash said.

"It will be nice to talk to some of my other colleagues. I'm sure a lot of people will want to train here as well," Evergreen said.

"Let us not take it to quick. We after all, cannot unreveal ourselves," Mewtwo said.

The others nodded. They knew they'd have to be careful but they had a feeling that once Azure Town became official that things would become more interesting in a good way.

- - -

Pike felt nervous as he walked into the office of Torkoal, the mayor of the town. When Torkoal asked him to come in, Pike did so, taking a deep breath and sitting down.

Pike was wearing a black vest and shorts.

"Hello Pike, how are you doing today?" Torkoal asked.

"I'm ... fine sir. I'm still getting used to being this way. There is a reason I was wandering in the woods and as a result, I have a request," Pike said.

"What reason is that?" Torkoal asked.

"At my job, I recently found out my boss was working for a criminal organization. She gave me money that I thought was a bonus," Pike said

"Go on," Torkoal said.

Pike nodded his head. "This is embarrassing but I used it to bet on Rapidash racing. I ended up losing it. It was after that when I found out who she was working for. I came to these woods because I feared for my safety. My family doesn't know about her so I thought that staying away would keep them safe. However, I'm worried that it isn't enough," Pike said.

"Why didn't you go to the police?" Torkoal asked.

"I was worried about retaliation. It just seemed safer for me to disappear somewhere. If my boss thought I'd vanished, maybe she'd assume her bosses did something. But now I'm worried for my sister, brother and parents. Could they come here and start a new life? My brother would love to be a Pokémorph. I know that this isn't a game and I should have told you sooner," Pike said.

"You're right, you should have told us," Torkoal said.

Pike hung his head. "If you guys want to make me a normal Pikachu and release me in the woods, I'll understand"

Torkoal reached touched Pike's hand on the desk. "Even if we could do that, we wouldn't. We can help you to find justice to raise the funds to keep this person from harming you or your family. However, if you'd like us to get your family here and to change them for their protection, I believe we can arrange it."

"Thank you," Pike said.

"Keep in mind what you're requesting. Your family may resist becoming this way, even for their own safety," Torkoal said.

Pike nodded. "They might even be mad at me for making such a mistake. I just don't want them to pay the price for my mistake."

Torkoal nodded.

Sometime later, Pike was with Amper. They were sitting outside of the office while Torkoal, Ash, Timothy and Ness discussed the situation.

"I hope you don't hate for me this," Pike said.

Amper was sitting beside Pike. She wore a black shirt and shorts.

Amper put her hand on Pike's leg. "I don't hate you Pike. Because you became this way, I've gotten to experience things I'd never have been able to. I never thought I'd wear clothes as an example."

Pike took Amper's hand and smiled. Although he'd be happy if she didn't wear clothes, he also knew that was just his instinct talking. He smiled.

"I loved you before this and I love you even more now," Pike said.

"Pike, while I've only been what do you guys call it, a morph for only a little while, I still know the signals you're sending. If you wish to mate with me, then you only need to say it," Amper said.

Pike felt his face flush with embarrassment. "I don't think we're ready for that yet. Morphs do things differently. I know that if we were both wild Pikachu, it would be different. But I don't want us to do something before we're ready and I mean emotionally."

"Is this what you mean by not always doing what your body wants even if it will feel good because it might not be good for you?" Amper said.

Pike nodded. The door to Torkoal's office opened and the four inside walked out

"All right Pike, we'll teleport your family here," Ash said.

"I wish you would have said something earlier but rather then dwell on the past, we need to focus on the future and ensure that you and your family's future is safe," Timothy said

"What do I need to do?" Pike asked.

"Um, I hope we weren't interrupting anything," Ness said.

Pike assumed that Ness had senses his emotions and shook his head.

"Ness can teleport your family here," Timothy said.

Pike knew that he could trust Ness.

"Won't it look strange when they all just vanish, maybe even right in front of someone?" Pike asked.

"I sense from you that your brother might like that as a way to trick his friends and that he would enjoy being this way. But to answer your question, I can wait until they're alone. Once they're all here, you'll need to explain the situation to them. I'll need to establish a connection to your mind to locate your family members. I assure you that I will not read thoughts that you do not wish me to read." Ness said.

Pike nodded. "I understand."

Ness made the connection to Pike. When Ness had connected their minds, Pike sensed an intelligent and ordered mind from Ness.

Ness was able to understand Pike's fear for his family and his embarrassment over the situation. As well, Ness sensed Pike's feeling for Amper. However, Pike and Ness knew that they had other things to worry about

The first family member Ness located was Remmie, Pike's eight year old brother. Remmie was at school but was on recess. Ness waited until Remmie turned a corner before teleporting him.

Just before Ness teleported Remmie, he sensed someone with hostile intentions approaching the boy. It seemed that they were after Remmie and possibly the others!

Fortunately, Ness was able to get Remmie out of there in time. As the boy appeared in the hallway, Ness located Tiffany, Pike's 18 year old sister. Ness saw that she was at home alone and was able to teleport her.

Pike could hear Remmie and Tiffany asking about where they were and who the people in the costumes were.

As Pike listened to Ash and the others trying to explain, Ness located Pike's parents. They were taking a walk in a park by their house. Ness waited until they were out of sight of others before teleporting them and breaking the connection with Pike.

"What's going on here?" Pike's father asked.

"Who are you and where have you brought us?" Pike's mother asked.

"It's so cool! These guys are talking Pokémon people!" Remmie said.

"Guys, I know this is hard for you to believe but it's me ... Pike."

"What are you talking about?" Pike's father asked.

"This is insane! Pike is not a Pikachu!" Tiffany said.

"That's really you Pike? You're a Pikachu?" Remmie asked.

Pike did his best to explain his situation. While Remmie was quick to believe Pike, his parents and Tiffany were more cautious. Amper tried to explain, mentioning things that she would know. One of them was about how Tiffany would sometimes tell her things that she would never tell another person.

Amper was about to tell Tiffany the nickname she had for a boy she wanted to ask out but never gathered the courage to before Tiffany stopped her saying that she believed Amper.

Pike told his father of a few memories from Pike's childhood that Pike found it unlikely anyone else would know.

That seemed to almost be enough for Pike's parents to believe him. As a last resort, Pike decided to show his mother a birthmark that he had on his back just over where his tail now was. It had managed to retain itself in his Chu form as a marking the color of his back stripes. That was enough for Pike's parents to believe him.

"Well, if we are in danger and this is the only way to keep ourselves safe, then it seems we have little choice," Pike's father said.

"I'm sorry about this, guys. But, I don't want to force you into this," Pike said.

Pike's mother walked up to Pike and touched the side of his face. "You really are a Pikachu aren't you? Pike nodded. "I know it's strange but at the same time really neat."

"I want be to a Pokémon too!" Remmie said.

After looking at Remmie, Pike's mother sighed. "I know what happened wasn't intentional. If we can be safe here and with you, then I think it's worth it."

"Well Pike, you've really gotten yourself into it this time. But hey, if you wanted a girlfriend, this was an interesting way to get one. But, what the heck, you said there's guys here, maybe I'll meet someone," Tiffany said.

"Well, then, it seems our answer is a yes. So, where do we go?" Pike's father asked.

"Right this way," Ash said.

Ten minutes later, Pike and Amper were standing outside of the dome containing the meteor. When the door opened, they watched as Pichu, Plusle, Minun and Persian walked out.

"Mom, Dad?" Pike asked.

The Plusle stepped forward.

"Yes Pike, its Mom," Pike's mother said.

The Pichu, from the clothing, Pike could tell it was Remmie.

"This is so cool. I'm a Pichu!" Remmie said.

Mark was speaking in the Pichu language, which from his tone, he seemed happy to do.

The Persian, Tiffany stepped forward next. She was the vision of beauty for any cat lovers.

"I'm a Persian! How do I look? Do I look all right?" Tiffany asked.

The Minun, Pike's father stepped forward, putting his hands on Tiffany's shoulders. "You look good dear."

"Tiffany, you'd better watch out for this other Persian we have in the Town," Ash said.

Pike's father perked. "What Persian is this?"

"Don't worry Dad; he's a lot older then Tiffany. If he were human, he'd be at least thirty five," Pike said.

"An older man huh?" Tiffany said.

Their father frowned. "Tiffany, I don't think so."

"I'm a Pichu, the guys love me," Remmie said. His cheeks began to spark. "Can I shock stuff?"

Before Pike could get a warning off, Remmie accidently shocked himself. He fell to the ground and started crying. Amper, acting on instinct, picked him up and patted him on the back.

"It's okay, I did that more than once when I was a Pichu," Amper said.

"It hurt," Remmie said.

"I know it hurt. But once you learn to control it," Amper said.

Tiffany shook her head. "He'll be a walking power plant."

Remmie's expressions brightened. "A power plant eh?"

"So, how do you guys feel?" Pike asked of his parents.

"Fine, just fine. It should be interesting to try out our abilities," Pike's father said.

"Just be careful not to let them get out of control," Ash said.

Pike's father nodded.

"Fine dear. But, I'm going to keep wearing clothes. I know some of you might run around with them like natural Pokémon, but that's not my thing." Pike's mother said.

"There was only one of us that did that and he stopped," Ash said.

"So, can I meet this Persian? I'll be good," Tiffany said.

"Are there any other kids I can meet?" Remmie asked.

"There's a few, yes," Pike said.

"But we should get settle in first," their father said.

"Well, then let me be the first to welcome you all to Azure Town," Ash said.

- - -

A few weeks later, the town was getting its first visitors. The reaction to the news of the morphs and their town had been good for the most part.

While there were some people that said that they were unnatural and should stay in their own town away from society, most people found their existence fascinating. The townspeople were confident that even if someone that felt that unnatural tried anything that they could defend themselves.

Chris, having been looking forward to letting the world know about his Furret form was more than happy to answer the visitor's questions.

Timothy had been hard at work with several others on the coliseum. While it was still under construction, Timothy had confident that once they completed it that it had the chance of becoming world class.

When news came that Lance was visiting the Town in help decide if their gym would be official in the league, Timothy was ecstatic.

He was walking toward the gym when Chris ran up to him.

"Hey Chris. So, you must love all this attention? Did you give anyone your autograph?" Timothy asked.

"Well I um, yes, I love the attention. But, I didn't give any autographs; Alex wouldn't like that too much."

Timothy chuckled. "I guess I'm no better. It looks like out gym may have the chance at becoming official! Lance, I mean *the* Lance is visiting!"

"Really? That's great. I'm delighted that Jake, Whiskers and Jack won't have to grow up secluded. Who knows, maybe other kids join us," Chris said.

"I admit that I'm a bit nervous at the idea of joining an official gym. It was one thing to battle in them. To be a part of one is something ... incredible," Timothy said.

"I can imagine," Chris said.

Having arrived at the gym, Chris and Timothy parted ways. Timothy took a deep breath and walked inside.

Ash and Peter were waiting inside. Lance was there as well, talking to Ash.

"Ah, you must be Timothy," Lance said.

"Yes sir, it's an honor to meet you. I'd shake your hand but I don't want to risk ... you know," Timothy said.

"I understand friend," Lance said.

"So, what do you think of our town?" Timothy asked.

"It's fascinating to meet real like Pokémorph. So far, from what Ash and Peter have told me, I don't think we're going to have any problem making you guys an official gym," Lance said.

"That's great to hear," Timothy said.

"However, how about we go over it one more time, so we're all on the same page?" Lance asked.

"Sure, first I challenge them with my Pokémon," Peter said.

"Then I challenge them," Timothy said.

"And finally, I do. If they defeat me, they win a badge that we've decided to call the Anthro Badge," Ash said.

"Sounds good," Lance said.

"Once we have our coliseum complete, we can battle in there as well," Timothy said.

"I have a feeling that trainers from all around are going to want to rise to the challenge of fighting Pokémon trained by morphs," Lance said.

"I know and we're ready for it," Ash said.

"It'll be fun," Peter said with a smile

"I'm always up for a challenge," Timothy said.

"Well then, I don't think there's a problem in making you guy's official," Lance said.

"Awesome!" Peter said.

"That's great, I look forward to this!" Timothy said.

"Thank you for this," Ash said.

"You're welcome," Lance said.

With that, Lance helped sign the necessary papers to make Azure Town's gym and in a sense, the town itself official.

- - -

Five years later.

Timothy and Peter stood before the coliseum in Azure City. Since their gym had become official five years before and the coliseums' completion several months later, their home had grown from a quaint town into a city.

News of the Pokémorph had spread quickly with groups of people wanting the asteroid to change them. Humans also lived among the morphs now and it wasn't uncommon for a human and morph to have a relationship (although, the human often would change sooner or later).

The years had seen a lot of changes for the various members of the town.

Peter and Nina eventually married and now had two kids. Peter spent a lot of time taking care of them but he was always up for a battle with Timothy.

Ash and Misty had two children. While Ash had considered going back out and training, he'd soon decided to settle down as this experience was one that he'd admitted was life changing.

Giovanni & Deliah had another kid. Ash enjoyed playing with his younger brother as much as Giovanni & Deliah did with their grandkids.

Tim and Sara got married two years after the town became official. A year later, Sara gave birth to a baby boy that they named Daniel.

Bulbasaur and Blossom married and were currently raising triplets.

Jean Luc married Dana. He still however, loved to battle and still considers Ash a brother.

Pike and Amper married a year after Pike's family changed. Almost a year later, Amper gave birth to a girl they named Alice. Two years after that, she gave birth to a boy they named Kevin.

Once it became legal, three years after the town became official, Remmie, having since evolved into a Pikachu, began his journey.

Brendon and May got married three years after the town became official. May found out she was pregnant a year and eventually gave birth to a baby girl they named Jackie.

"These last years have been interesting, haven't they?" Peter asked.

Timothy nodded. "They sure have."

A thought occurred to Peter and he grinned. "Timothy I think you owe me a rematch"

Timothy looked at Peter and grinned back. "You're on!"


	24. Asheus

Asheus

Disclaimer: We don't own, so don't sue!

Author Notes: Written by Ri2 quite a while ago, just got to posting it.

* * *

Cyrus cackled insanely, arcs of electricity dancing across his machine and making his hair stand up as the ignition sequence began. "At last…_at last_…ultimate power shall be MINE! Bwahahahahaha!"

Imprisoned in three large force field spheres surrounding a glowing central platform, the enraged divine dragons Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina roared in fury and struggled with all their might to break free from the pulsating crimson chains wrapped around their forms as Team Galactic's machine drained their power for its leader's insidious plan. The Adamant, Lustrous, and Griseous Orbs were set in niches atop the glowing platform, and grew brighter the more the dragons fought. In three smaller spheres encircling the larger ones, the lake trio of Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf floated helplessly, unable to do anything to free themselves or their brethren.

The dragons weren't the only ones struggling. "No! Let us go! We have to stop this!" Ash Ketchum protested, fighting rather ineffectually against the large Toxicroak the Galactic Admin Saturn had sent out to restrain him.

Saturn rolled his eyes. "Right, and I'm just going to listen to you because…"

"If someone doesn't stop Cyrus now, then the whole world, if not the universe, will be destroyed!" Dawn said desperately, held in place by Mars' Bronzong's Psychic powers.

"That's sort of the idea, kid," said Mars.

"But what's so bad about this universe that you want to destroy it and make it a new one?! Everything seems fine to me!" said Brock, bound by Jupiter's Bronzong. (Yes, there was more than one there. So what?) "I mean, yeah, I guess there are a few things I'd like to change—like make more women into me--but overall the world isn't that bad, is it?"

Jupiter snorted. "Says someone who's never had it _really_ tough!"

"The world sucks and would be better off if everyone died," Charon said pessimistically.

Cynthia, who was wrapped up in the coils of Cyrus's Gyarados, sweatdropped. "Wow…talk about blowing some things out of proportion…"

The Spear Pillar darkened as a shadow started to pass over the sun. "The solar eclipse has begun!" Cyrus exulted triumphantly. "Once it is complete, I shall play the Azure Flute and summon Arceus to this plane of existence! With the power of his firstborn children, the Red Chain, and the three Orbs he will be unable to escape, and with THIS Master Ball-" Cyrus raised a purple Pokeball into the air. "I will capture him, and he will be forced to do my bidding, and I shall make him destroy the entire universe and rebuild it in my image so that I am the absolute God of ALL THINGS! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Just listen to him!" Cynthia argued. "The man is clearly insane! Can you honestly say that any universe he makes won't be worse off than the one we have now?!"

"He may be a little crazy…but he's so _dreamy!"_ Jupiter gushed, her eyes turning into hearts.

"He promised me a galaxy of my own…so, yeah," said Mars with a shrug.

"All good leaders are a little bonkers," said Saturn. "You have to expect it in some people."

"And besides, he's not nearly as nutty as the boss of the last outfit I worked at…he insisted on coming in to work without pants…and wanted us to wear dresses…" Charon said with a shudder. "Ugh…I think a world made by Cyrus would be infinitely preferable to going back to that again."

The heroes sweatdropped. "Well, I guess there's no changing their minds…" Cynthia muttered.

"I can't believe this…some people are so stupid and greedy!" Ash ranted.

"You're only just now noticing that?" Brock asked sarcastically.

"If Cyrus destroys everything and remakes it in his image, does that mean we won't all come back?" Dawn asked anxiously. "Because…I really don't want to die…"

"None of us do," said Brock with a sigh. "But it doesn't look like there's anything we can do about it…oh well, if it's really the end of the universe, then at least I can spend my last minutes with you, my love!" he squealed to Cynthia, who sweatdropped. There was an expectant pause. "Wait, when's Croagunk going to Poison Jab me?"

"Saturn's Toxicroak threw him off a cliff, remember?" Ash said bitterly. "Along with most of our Pokeballs…and Pikachu…"

Brock sagged. "Oh…yeah…"

"I'm sure they're all right…" Dawn said, though it wasn't clear if she believed it.

"If the Pokeballs broke when they hit the ground, they were probably released on impact," said Cynthia. "But whether or not they'll be able to save us considering how badly they were beaten before we were able to return them…and especially given how Ash's Pikachu was…well, I wouldn't get my hopes up."

"That's right," said Cyrus. "There's nothing-" Charon cleared his throat loudly. Saturn blinked. "Oh, right, we're not supposed to say things like that. It could jinx us. I forgot."

The sun was blotted out completely by the eclipse. Darkness fell over Mt. Coronet, and the only light atop the Pillar came from the Orbs, the platform, and the crackling force field cages. Manic glee upon his usually emotionless face, Cyrus lifted the flute to his lips…

When suddenly a familiar irritating laugh rung out across the mountaintop. "Listen, is that a voice I hear?" a female voice said.

"It's speaking to me loud and clear," said another voice that was…also sort of feminine.

The heroes groaned, while Cynthia blinked in confusion and the Galactics looked on in dumbfounded disbelief as a Meowth-shaped balloon rose up past the edge of the mountain and floated over their heads. "Oh, for the love of-" Brock swore.

"What the…" said the astonished Cynthia.

"As if things weren't bad enough?!" Dawn snapped.

"Why NOW?!" Ash yelled. "Pikachu isn't even here! He's-" He choked off in midsentence.

"On the wind!" said Jessie from the basket of their hot-air balloon.

"Past the stars!" said James.

"In your ears!" said Meowth.

"Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace!"

"Dashing hope, putting fear in its place!"

"A rose by any other name is just as sweet!"

"When everything's worse, our work is complete!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"And Meowth, now dat's a name!"

"Putting the do-gooders in their place…" said Jessie, posing.

"…We're Team Rocket…" James said, posing.

"In your face!" they all shouted.

"Woooobbuffet!" Jessie's Wobbuffet said, popping out of his Pokeball.

"Mime Mime Mime Mime!" added James' Mime Jr.

"What the…" started Mars.

Saturn groaned. "Not them again…"

"How'd they even find us?!" asked the astonished Jupiter.

"They were probably looking for me," Ash said morosely. "They seem to have some kind of radar that always knows where I am…how else would they always be following me?"

"Mwahahaha! That's right, you can never escape us, twerps!" Jessie cackled.

"We weren't expecting to run into Team Galactic here, but since they've gone and gift-wrapped Sinnoh's greatest legends for us, we'll take them as _well_ as your Pikachu!" James declared.

"And den we'll give 'em to da Boss! And just _imagine_ what he'll do wid all deir ultimate power!" Meowth said, eyes glistening with wonder. "With Uxie's infinite knowledge, he'll never haveta use Bulbapedia to find da name of dat movie he can never remember, he'll just ask Uxie! Mesprit's power over emotion will allow him to feel happy and warm all over whenever he's blue! Azelf's will will give da Boss da motivation he needs to get out of bed and conquer da world whenever he's feeling down and out! With Palkia, he can make da inside of his mansion as big as he wants so he can install a roller coaster and ride it whenever he feels like it! With Dialga, he can travel back in time and undo all da mistakes he's made in his life, and maybe get togedder with da girl of his dreams before she marries another man! And Giratina…uh…" Meowth frowned. "He can…go to da Reverse World and…uh…have a vacation free of da stress and annoyances of da office! Yeah…dat'll work…"

Everyone sweatdropped. "Are these idiots for real?!" Charon wondered.

"Unfortunately," Brock said deadpan.

"Why couldn't Team Galactic be easy to defeat as those three?" Dawn lamented. "Then the world wouldn't be about to end and…our Pokemon…"

Ash shook as he tried not to cry, causing Toxicroak to tighten its grip on his arms. "P-Pikachu…"

"And you wonder why we want to destroy the universe with people as stupid as them around?" Mars asked.

"Destroying the world just because there are stupid people in it isn't a very good reason to do it," Cynthia argued.

"Maybe, but it'll also make everything a whole lot less dumber," Mars pointed out. "That's good enough for me!"

"Now, hand over the dragons and the fairy things and Pikachu and nobody gets hurt!" Jessie threatened.

Cyrus' eye twitched. Then he exploded in rage. "YOU IMBECILES! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU ARE INTERFERING WITH?! NOW IS MY MOMENT TO ASCEND TO GODHOOD, AND I SHALL NOT ALLOW MY DESTINY TO BE INTERRUPTED BY ANYONE, LET ALONE FOOLS SUCH AS YOURSELVES!" Team Rocket squealed in fright and hugged each other. James wet himself. Cyrus shot a look at his minions. "KILL THEM! _NOW!_"

Startled, the Galactic Admins straightened and saluted. "Sir, yes sir!" they said. They pulled out Pokeballs.

"Go, Golbat!" Mars commanded, releasing her winged, fanged horror.

"You too, Golbat!" Jupiter commanded, sending out her own Golbat.

"And…um, you too, Golbat." Saturn sweatdropped. "Wow, we sure have a lot of Golbats, don't we?"

Charon sneered. "At least _I_ have some originality. Come out, Rotom!" His orange, buzzing ghostly childhood friend appeared. Ash shook, the electricity coming off of Rotom reminding him of…of…

"Attack!" Saturn ordered. Their Pokemon flew at the Rocket balloon, while a relieved Cyrus went back to playing his flute.

"Two can play at that game! Go, Yanmega!" Jessie cried, sending out her dragonfly monster.

"You go too, Carnivine!" James said, summoning his big-mouthed plant, which promptly started eating his head. "Aaaaahhh! Not me, THEM! THEM!"

"Why do you even bother calling it out anymore if it keeps doing that?" Meowth asked James.

"Either I keep hoping it'll finally get a clue and stop or I'm suffering brain damage from all the bites to the head," James gave a muffled reply from inside Carnivine's mouth.

"Yanmega, attack with Ancientpower!" Jessie ordered.

"Yaaanmega!" the insect replied, forming a large white energy ball and hurling it at the Galactic Pokemon.

"Rotom, change into Fan Rotom and blow that attack right back!" Charon ordered.

The plasma wisp buzzed obediently and transformed into a large glowing orange fan, whose blades began to spin and generated a gust of wind that blew the Ancientpower right back at Yanmega, the combination of Flying and Rock power hitting the bug with an explosion that knocked it out and sent it flying back into Jessie's arms, bowling her over with a great crash.

"Aaahh! No, Yanmega!" Jessie cried.

"What's happening? Are we winning?" James asked hopefully from inside Carnivine's mouth.

"Do we _ever_ win?" Meowth asked morosely.

James sweatdropped. Or was that the Carnivine? "Good point."

"Now, Golbat, hit them with Supersonic before they can retaliate!" Saturn ordered.

All three Golbat screeched and started firing large blue circles from their mouths. "Um, yeah, Golbat, use Supersonic too!" Mars said, a little late.

Jupiter sweatdropped. "Why are they all obeying him before us?!"

"Because they're stupid," Charon grunted. "They're goddamned bats."

Team Rocket wailed and drooled as their inner ears were bombarded by the Golbats' Supersonic waves. "OooOOoOooOohhHhHH…I'm NoT FEElinG well," Jessie moaned.

"Meowth is confused! Meowth hurt himself in his confusion!" said Meowth, punching himself in the face.

"Wooooobbuffet," Wobbuffet said, banging his head against the side of the basket.

James stumbled about blindly until he tripped over Mime Jr., who was also stumbling about, causing him to bang into the side of the basket, dislodging Carnivine from his head and causing the Bug Catcher to go flying through the air, slamming into Toxicroak and knocking both him and Ash over. "Uhf!" The poison frog's grip let go from surprise, Ash quickly managed to pull himself out from underneath the Toxicroak and make a run for it. The Toxicroak tried to snatch him back, but Carnivine's tendrils were all wrapped around it and now it was gnawing on his head. The frog croaked in anger, drawing his trainer's attention away from Team Rocket making fools of themselves and causing him to notice Ash had escaped. He gasped. "He's making a run for it! Stop him!"

The Golbat turned away from Team Rocket's balloon and started flying towards Ash, who was desperately running for Cyrus. The madman, still playing his flute, was on the other end of the Spear Pillar from him, standing on the opposite side of the platform, whose glow grew stronger and stronger with every note Cyrus blew. Ash didn't know what he was going to do, but he knew he absolutely had to stop Cyrus before it was too late! "Go, Ash, go!" Dawn cheered him on.

"This is our last shot! Go for it!" Cynthia yelled.

"Watch out for the Golbat!" Brock cried out in warning as the bats swooped down at Ash.

"Kill him!" Mars roared with bloodthirst.

"No, wait, don't use lethal attacks, at that range you could damage the machine!" Charon warned the Admins.

"In that case, use Mean Look!" Jupiter ordered.

"And Confuse Ray!" said Mars.

"You too, Golbat!" Saturn commanded.

"Oh no you don't!" Jessie cried, recovering her senses.

James nodded. "That's right, nobody harasses the twerp but us! Carnivine, Bullet Seed!" The plant opened its big mouth and spat glowing yellow seeds at the Golbat, catching the goddamned bats by surprise and knocking them out of the air.

"What the—I thought you were still confused!" stammered the astonished Mars.

"Ha! It'll take more than a Confuse Ray to put us down!" Jessie bragged.

James nodded. "That's right, we're almost always confused anyway!"

"Meowth is confused! Meowth hurt himself in his confusion!" said Meowth, continuing to punch himself in the face.

Dawn's jaw dropped. "Team Rocket is…helping us?!"

"It wouldn't be the first time…" said Brock.

"Well, maybe we have a chance after all!" said Cynthia.

She was wrong. Toxicroak croaked with anger, shoved Carnivine off of it, and punched its face in with one of its venomous claws. It then spat a Dark Pulse at Team Rocket's balloon, causing it to explode and send the trio flying.

"Waaaahhh! We're blasting off agaaaaiiiin!" Jessie and James wailed.

"Meowth is confused! Meowth hurt himself in his confusion, said Meowth, punching his face…in midair.

"Woooobbuffet!" said Wobbuffet as they vanished into the distance.

"Well, good riddance," said Jupiter.

"Toxicroak, get that boy! But no attacks, you could destroy the machine, and Cyrus would have our heads!" Saturn ordered his giant monster toad, who nodded and started running after Ash.

"You too, Rotom! Assume Mow power!" Charon ordered, causing Rotom to transform into a lawnmower from Hell and eagerly drive after Ash and Toxicroak.

Ash glanced back over his shoulder as he ran towards Cyrus's machine, noticing the grunting Toxicroak loping towards him and the terrifying Rotom catching up with a monstrous grin on its face. He knew they would catch him in seconds, despite his friends' desperate encouragements to keep going. Thinking quickly as he darted past Uxie and between Dialga and Giratina, he decided to do something that was probably not very bright: use the dangerously glowing platform as a shortcut to get to Cyrus rather than run around it like he had originally planned. Hopefully, the Pokemon would be too startled to follow him (and probably with good reason, considering the kind of power probably being gathered there), at least not for a few seconds, and give him enough time to get that flute away from Cyrus before he destroyed everything.

The Galactic Admins gasped, suddenly realizing what Ash was planning. "What?! No! He must be bluffing! He wouldn't do what I think he's about to do, is he?!" cried a horrified Mars.

"Nobody's _that_ stupid!" Jupiter agreed.

"You don't know Ash," said Brock.

"Go, Ash! You can do it!" Dawn cried.

"We all believe in you!" Cynthia shouted.

"STOP HIM! NOW!" Saturn, terrified of what might happen if Ash stepped on the platform, commanded Toxicroak.

The frog, who was just meters behind Ash, lunged forward in an attempt to tackle Ash to the ground. Ash pulled off his backpack and threw it in the toad's face to try and divert its attention. Toxicroak reflexively ripped it apart with its Poison Jab…causing several dozen pairs of underwear to fly out and cover its face. Startled, it fell to the ground a few inches short of Ash, causing Rotom, who had been just behind it, to crash into it before it could put on the brakes, zapping both of them with several hundred volts of electricity. The arcs of power crackled out and danced along the force fields containing the nearby dragons, causing them to roar angrily and renew their struggles as the barriers imprisoning them flickered slightly…

And the energy on the platform was starting to fluctuate rather ominously. Ash supposed he should stop and go around, but he was moving too fast at that point and was unable to stop himself, so desperately leaped just as he reached the edge of the platform in hopes that he might somehow clear it (and land on Cyrus)…

Except that the platform was much larger than he had thought, and he landed in the center of it. He screamed in agony and fell to his knees as bolts of power struck him from all over the place, the surface of the machine clearly not the least bit safe for humans. His friends gasped. "ASH, NO!" Brock and Dawn shouted.

"Wait, this could be a good thing…he might disrupt the machine!" Cynthia realized.

"He could also die," an alarmed Jupiter pointed out.

"Which would be a good thing if Cyrus wasn't going to kill us for letting him get on there," Saturn groaned.

Cyrus stopped playing the flute, opened his eyes, and spread his arms. "The Song of Origin has been played, and the eclipse is at its peak! Arceus is on his way…I can feel it in my bones! Within moments he will…wait…WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING THERE?!"

"AAAAAHHHHH!" Ash screamed in reply.

"YOU LITTLE IDIOT!" Cyrus shouted in rage. "GET OFF THERE, NOW! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'RE-"

And that's when Arceus appeared.

A beam of pure white heavenly light shot down from the epicenter of the eclipse and struck the platform, hitting Ash dead-on. The boy's screams reached a new pitch as light blasted out in every direction, almost blinding the onlookers and reducing him to a pain-wracked silhouette…and to the shock and disbelief of everyone watching, a second, much_ larger_ silhouette, also wracked in pain appeared behind him! As they looked on, the shadows blurred and warped and flowed into each other and then there was a shattering noise and the sound of a large explosion and…

The light faded. A single figure stood on the platform, the shards of the broken Adamant, Lustrous, and Griseous Orbs lying around its rather pointy gold-tipped hooves. It was approximately ten feet tall, but something about it made it appear even bigger, so that even those who were standing several meters away from it felt dwarfed by it. Even the three great legendary dragons seemed like insects compared to its sheer presence. It was humanoid in form with white fur covering its entire body, save for a gray underbelly. Its limbs were long and slender, and the arms ended in hands with gold-tipped claws rather than hooves like the feet. White 'spikes' of fur grew from the side of its neck, which was surprisingly long. A rather long plume of white hair with a gray underside ran down its back to its waist. A golden cross-like wheel with four jewels that were constantly changing color floated in the air just behind it, silently rotating in place. Its face was gray and scalloped, almost featureless and utterly inhuman save for its eyes, which looked…familiar…

It took Dawn a minute to realize that she was prostrating herself on the ground towards the towering figure. She hadn't remembered getting in that position. Neither did Brock, or Cynthia, or the Pokemon who had been holding them just moments ago, or the startled Team Galactic admins. It had just been something that came automatically, a kneejerk reaction to being confronted with…with…

"Arceus…" whispered a stunned Cyrus, only able to resist groveling as well through sheer force of will, something he was rather good at. "At last…now…now your power shall be mine." He raised the Master Ball, fingers trembling as he prepared to commit the ultimate blasphemy and capture God.

Arceus stared at the Master Ball…and suddenly, much to Cyrus' astonishment, it wasn't there. "Wh-what…where did…" The human reached for another Pokeball, only to find to his surprise, they were all gone too. "H-how are you doing this?!" he cried, fear-sweat rolling down his spine. "Your powers should be contained by the machine! Y-you can't-"

And suddenly the machine was gone, too. It didn't disintegrate or fade or vanish in a flash of light, it just _ceased to be there_; there one moment, gone the next. And with it went the cages, and the heavens themselves seemed to tremble as Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina reared their heads back and roared exultantly at their restored freedom. Cyrus's eyes widened in horror as the dragons then turned their evil red gaze on him, a desire for vengeance clear in every cruel curve of their body…

A desire which seemed to fade completely when Arceus glanced at them, briefly. And they calmed down, just like that, obediently sitting down on the ground, like a Growlithe loyally performing a trick for its master. It was…rather jarring to see, considering the size disparity of the beings involved.

And then Arceus turned its gaze back on Cyrus, and the terrified human realized he was doomed. He turned to flee, only to find the lake trio barring his path. He opened his mouth to scream, but then Azelf touched him in the chest and he felt all his motivation run out of him and he stood there like a statue. Uxie opened its eyes and Cyrus suddenly forgot who he was or where he was or what he was doing there, but when Mesprit touched him he suddenly stopped caring.

And then Arceus said a word. None of the others could hear what it was, they were too far away, which was probably a good thing since the simple act of hearing it caused Cyrus's head to explode and spray blood everywhere. The dragons grunted in satisfaction. The humans trembled in horror. "C-Cyrus…" whispered Saturn.

"It…it just…" stammered a shocked Dawn.

"_Killed_…him," whispered Brock.

"Though he probably deserved it," said Cynthia. They gaped at her. "What? From Arceus's perspective, he probably did."

"Is…is it gonna do that to _us,_ too?!" cried the terrified Mars.

"Let's get out of here!" Jupiter wailed.

"Too late," Charon whimpered as Arceus turned around and stared at them, fixing them with its gaze. "_Far_ too late!"

He was right. Arceus turned its glare briefly from the humans to Charon's Rotom nearby, who was starting to recover. The electric ghost vanished and suddenly reappeared next to its trainer, looking as startled as Charon was. "R-Rotom? What-" Charon started before Arceus narrowed its eyes and the Rotom slammed into Charon's chest, osmosing into his body. The scientist screamed in agony as his skin turned orange and electricity crackled out all over his body in tremendous arcs which everyone had to flinch back from to keep from getting hit by them. His skin convalesced as it turned from flesh to some other kind of matter entirely, his features contorting and rearranging themselves gruesomely as his clothes disintegrated from the sheer amount of energy making up his form. As a spike grew from the top of his head and his eyes turned blue, it became apparent that he was somehow fusing with his Pokemon to become a human/Rotom hybrid…

But something was wrong. He couldn't control the energy making up his body. His limbs kept bulging and shrinking and spikes kept bursting out and retracting and his body twisted and folded in on itself, Charon screaming all the while. Finally, he gave up the ghost and simply vaporized, all his power dissipating outward in a flash of light that tore his incorporeal body to shreds, leaving no trace behind but a smoldering blackened spot where he had been standing. The Rotom and the scientist had killed many other humans and Pokemon, and so Arceus had thought it fitting that they both be condemned together.

The humans gasped. Jupiter and Dawn both threw up. Arceus glared at Saturn, then at his unconscious Toxicroak, and suddenly the poisonous frog was next to the blue-haired Admin, and a moment later they were slammed into each other. Due to Saturn being smaller than Toxicroak, he found himself being absorbed into his Pokemon's body, screaming as he vanished into the Toxic Mouth Pokemon's blueish-green chest. Toxicroak, awakened by the collision, croaked in shock…and was even more shocked when it started shrinking until it was halfway between its original height and that of its master's. It straightened up, its spine realigning itself so that it no longer walked with a hunch as its head grew smaller and sprouted up on a newly formed neck. The crest on its head split in two and curved to the sides so that it resembled Saturn's hair. Its grotesque features twisted and became vaguely more humanoid, until they partially resembled Saturn's face. The legs lengthened and unkinked to look more mammalian. Its arms and throat sac stayed about the same, though. It looked down at itself in horror as everyone gaped. "Wh-what have you done to me?!" it croaked in a horrible blend of Toxicroak and Saturn's voices.

Rather than reply, Arceus just stared at him, and suddenly the hideous hybrid vanished, banished to Pastoria's Great Marsh, never to return. The God then turned its baleful gaze on Jupiter and Mars, who wept and trembled and begged for mercy. "N-no, please don't-" Mars whimpered.

"We'll t-turn over a new leaf, we swear!" Jupiter wailed.

Arceus didn't seem interested. In a flash of light, two of their Pokeballs burst open, returning their Bronzong and releasing Mars' Purugly and Jupiter's Skuntank. Before Pokemon or trainer could react, the cat and skunk were lifted into the air and hurled into their mistresses, sinking into their bodies on impact. Mars screamed in agony as gray and white fur formed on her skin, causing her already-tight clothes to become much too tight, especially when a very curly tail tore itself out of her rear and hung limply behind her. Her hips and shoulders swelled up and burst, ripping her pantlegs, skirt, and sleeves as the upper parts of her arms and legs bulged up rather grotesquely while everything else tapered down to rather tiny paws. She staggered, nearly falling over from the shift in weight and the difficulty of balancing on such small feet. It got worse when her waist narrowed and her upper body also became rather bloated, ripping open the front of her shirt and causing her now much-larger fur-covered breasts to droop out, nearly causing her to fall over again. She had secretly wanted a bigger bust, but this was too much, so big it bordered on the grotesque! She sobbed as whiskers grew from her now-hairy cheeks, her eyes turned yellow, her nose shrank into a little black dot, and her hair turned gray and sprouted very large cat ears which actually looked sort of like Saturn's hairdo.

Jupiter didn't get it much better. Her clothes burst as well when her own body became a lot fatter, dark purple and tan fur covering her skin as a very long tail grew from her rear then curved upward until it rested on top of her head. Claws grew from her hands and feet as her toes and fingers merged together, going from five to three apiece. Her face bulged outwards as she gained larger cheeks and a slightly protruding tan snout. She also gained a very, very horrid stench. She broke down and wept when she saw what had been done to her.

The dragons and lake trio looked pleased, the heroes were horrified, and Arceus seemed indifferent. He turned his attention away from the broken women, and just like that, they disappeared. The Gyarados trembled, realizing Arceus was now staring at him, and abruptly his head exploded, just as his trainer's had. The humans near him screamed as blood rained from the sky, but miraculously none of it touched them. The Atrocious Pokemon's great serpentine corpse fell to the ground with a great thud, throwing up some dust. It lay there, dead, but still twitching slightly.

Arceus did not really care. Now that all the Galactic commanders and Pokemon were dealt with, the omnipotent being gazed up at the eclipse…

And suddenly, off in the distance, white energy beams rained from the sky. The humans watched in horror as the beams lanced down from the heavens, striking spots both far and near all over the globe. Each beam targeted a specific individual, not that the humans had any way of knowing it, and whichever human or Pokemon got hit by the beam was instantly erased from existence, Arceus passing Judgment and deciding they did not deserve to live any longer. With a single thought, he utterly extinguished one-twelfth of the world's total population. At least one species of Pokemon went extinct, having outlived its use or strayed too far from the purpose Arceus had designed them for. From that point forward, the world would be a very different place…though whether that was a good thing or not was still to be seen.

"Wh-what just happened?" Brock stammered.

"That was…Judgment…" whispered a horrified Cynthia. "Arceus' trademark attack…used only to pass, well, judgment on sinners and determine whether they deserve to continue existing. How many…how many lives has he just wiped out? How many humans and Pokemon did he decide were unworthy of living a second longer on this Earth?"

Dawn trembled in fear. "Is this…is this the end of the world after all?"

The three dragons grunted in amusement, clearly approving Arceus' decision. The trio hovered impassively. His Judgment passed, Arceus turned his gaze on Dawn, Brock, and Cynthia, and they shook beneath the weight of those eyes…wait…

"Ash?!" Dawn whispered in disbelief, suddenly realizing why the eyes seemed familiar.

"Dawn, what are you talking about?" asked the confused Brock.

"Those eyes…that's Ash! I don't know how, but Arceus is somehow Ash!" Dawn cried.

Brock stared at her incredulously. "What? That's impossible!"

"No, wait…" Cynthia said, eyes wide in astonishment. "Maybe not…Arceus is always shown in pictures as having four legs, but the being before us now has two. When Ash got hit with that beam of light, we saw two silhouettes blending together. Maybe what happened is that somehow…Ash and Arceus became one?"

"Is that true?" Dawn yelled to the all-powerful creature staring at them. "Are you really in there, Ash?"

"And if you are…what…what the heck are you doing?! You killed Cyrus and Charon and did…I don't even _know_ what to those other three! And that's not counting all the people you must have just killed with that Judgment attack! What's wrong with you?!" Brock shouted. "They may have been bad, but they didn't deserve that!"

The legendary dragons growled angrily, displeased with the way those pathetic humans were talking to their Father, but a brief glance from Arceus calmed them down. Arceus took a step forward…

And suddenly, he was standing right before the humans. They stumbled back from him in fright; his presence so much greater now that he was right _there_ that it felt as if they were standing at the base of the tallest mountain in the world. They tensed, wondering what fate the deity had in store for them…

When suddenly they heard several confused and alarmed voices cry out a few meters to their right. They turned their heads…and gasped at what they saw there.

"Sudowoodo? Croagunk? Happiny?!" Brock cried, rushing over to his Pokemon and grabbing Happiny, who was crying in fear and confusion.

"Piplup? Buneary? Pachirisu? Ambipom? And Mamoswine!" Dawn yelled, running over to her Pokemon, who quickly glomped her in happiness at seeing her again…and were then crushed beneath the overjoyed Mamoswine's enormous weight.

Cynthia's own Pokemon took action before their trainer and surrounded her, hugging her in relief. "Spiritomb…Togekiss…Lucario…Garchomp…Roserade…Milotic…" She hugged as many of them back as she could. "I was so worried…I'm glad you're all right…" She cried tears of happiness.

However, their Pokemon weren't the only ones to be returned from…elsewhere. Pikachu, Staraptor, Grotle, Chimchar, Buizel, and Gliscor looked about; confused as to how they had been retrieved from the fissure they'd been thrown into and healed completely, and wondering where their trainer was. "Pikapi?" Pikachu called, not seeing Ash anywhere.

And then they saw Arcues, and stiffened, as all of them suddenly realized—thanks to divine insight--what had happened to their trainer. They sagged in despair, and Chimchar burst into tears, as they realized that, while Ash was still alive and okay, after this moment they would never see him again. "P-Pikapi…" Pikachu whispered mournfully. Arceus stared at them for a moment, and then turned away. Pikachu felt his heart break.

"I…thank you for bringing back our Pokemon," Cynthia said, finally pulling away from her team. "But what are you trying to do? Why are you-" She was interrupted when Uxie suddenly teleported in front of her. "Oh! Wh-what-" She felt a thrill of terror, recalling what had happened to Cyrus. Was she about to be brainwashed too?! "Wait, don't-" she started, but needn't have bothered protesting. Rather than opening its eyes, Uxie became intangible and flew inside her body.

Her Pokemon gasped in alarm. "What's it doing?!" Dawn cried.

"Is…is Cynthia going to transform, too?!" Brock wondered.

That quickly turned out to be the case. Cynthia gasped as she felt herself changing in a process much less painful than what had been done to Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, or Charon. Her skin turned blue as very fine, short hairs grew all over it. The back of her pants tore open (thankfully hidden beneath her long black coat) and a pair of long blue tails grew out and spread out behind her, each ending in a three-tined fan with a red jewel imbedded in it. The top of her luxurious curly ankle-length blond hair hardened into a dome-shaped yellow turban encircling her cranium, the rest of her hair still flowing out from under the back. Her face softened, rounded, and turned yellow as her nose retracted into her face, her ears shrank into the sides of her head, and her eyes enlarged and immediately sealed themselves behind thick lids. Another red jewel appeared on her forehead.

"Whoa!" Dawn cried.

Brock's eyes turned into hearts. "She's so beauty-GAH!" he cried as Croagunk hit him with a Poison Jab. "Why do you…always…do that?" he groaned as the frog dragged him away, his Happiny clapping happily at her parent's suffering.

Cynthia looked herself over as her Pokemon surrounded her in concern, still able to see despite her eyes being closed. "Incredible…I…I know everything. Every story and secret, every legend and myth, every tale being told, both real or fictional, in this and every other world! The knowledge…it's more than I could have ever dreamed! Like my head has become a library of absolutely everything there is!" She frowned and looked up at Arceus. "But…now there's nothing left for me. If I know everything, there's no more information or stories for me to seek out. What am I supposed to do with my life now that I've gotten exactly what I wanted?"

Arceus just stared at her. After a moment, she nodded. "…I see. Very well. Thank you for this gift." She turned to her confused Pokemon. "Come, now. I have important work to do, and I don't want to have to do it alone." With that, all of them teleported away.

"What…just happened?" asked the confused Dawn. "And…is that going to happen to me too?! I don't want to become something like that! Although…" She thought for a moment. "If I fuse with a legendary Pokemon, would I be a god too? Hmm…that might be nice…" Her Pokemon sweatdropped.

Arceus turned to Brock, who stiffened. "Wh-what are you going to do to me?" he asked anxiously as his Pokemon moved forward to protect him.

He got his answer when, abruptly, he and his Pokemon were teleported away from the Spear Pillar. They reappeared in a very hot lava-filled cavern deep underground…and Brock felt very different. "What…what's happened to me?!" he cried to his astonished (and hot) Pokemon.

Brock had somehow been transformed in mid-teleport so that he was no longer human, his clothing removed in the process. He was a little taller now, and much wider and heavier, and his body was completely covered in red armor plating with black lines running through it, except for his belly and underside, which were gray. His neck had elongated slightly, and now spikes were growing from his sides, running from his neck to his newly formed tail, which ended in several hooked plates. His feet were now clawed, as were his hands. His head had become reptilian and somewhat monstrous, his spiky hair hardened into actual plate spikes. His eyes were still slits, though.

"I think I'm some kind of…Groudon-ish…thing," Brock said, stating the obvious in amazement. "But…why? And what are we doing here? Is this Hell or something? It sure feels like it." Sudowoodo and Croagunk shrugged. Happiny toddled over to the edge of the rock they were standing on to play in the lava.

Thankfully, she was driven off when the surface of the molten rock bubbled and an immense crimson form arose from it, magma streaming down its sides as it emerged from its slumber, its enormous spiky head nearly scraping the ceiling. Yellow eyes shot open, glaring out at the cavern with rage. "Who dares disturb the slumber of the mighty Groudon?!" the legendary Continent Pokemon bellowed…until it noticed Brock. "Ooh, a new boyslave! I haven't had one of those in a long time!" it said in a much more…_feminine_…voice. "Come over here and pleasure me, boyslave! I haven't had any good sex in centuries!"

Groudon, who was apparently a girl, reached out and grabbed the much-smaller Brock in her enormous claws, pulling him close to her so she could shower him with kisses. "Aaaahhh! Noooo!" Brock wailed. "This really is Hell! Let me out! Let me _oooouuuut!_ Ash, you're gonna pay for thiiiiiiis!"

Happiny clapped her hands joyfully at the prospect of finally having a mother. Croagunk croaked and sat down to watch their trainer get sexually molested. Sudowoodo sweatdropped, wondering if perhaps Arceus or Ash or whoever had intended this to be a 'present' for Brock, the only way he'd ever realistically get a girlfriend. Brock didn't seem to be enjoying it too much, however…

Back at Spear Pillar, Dawn was outraged…and terrified. "Ash! How could you do that to Brock! He was our friend! And what did his Pokemon ever do to you?!" she snapped, too angry to consider that insulting the creator of the entire universe might be a bad idea. "Have you become so full of yourself and blinded by power that you think we mortals don't even matter anymore?! Have you lost your humanity completely?! I-" She paused, feeling an odd calm wash over her. "What…why do I feel this way? I should be furious at you…why…" She gasped, realizing Mesprit was controlling her feelings, but could do nothing about it before the Emotion Pokemon became transparent and flew into her body.

The changes were almost immediate, and just as painless. Like Cynthia before her, her skin turned blue and a pair of tails ending in fans with red jewels in them grew from her rear, thankfully concealed by her short skirt. Her hair turned pink and elongated before clumping together into four tentacle-like dreads spreading out from her head. Her eyes grew larger and turned yellow as her face turned pink, her nose and ears shrunk into her head, and a large red gemstone grew from her forehead. Her body also matured somewhat, stretching her clothes as her limbs grew longer and shapelier and she acquired a slightly larger chest. She gasped, and her Pokemon's jaws dropped in awe. "O-oh…OHHH!" Her mind was flooded with feelings and sensations…not from her, but from every living thing around her. She could sense worry and fear and concern from her Pokemon, boredom and faint interest from the dragon, curiosity and…something else from Azelf, fear and panic and desperate hope in the countryside as everyone tried to make sense of the act of God that had just occurred, and from Arceus she felt…

She felt…

Her eyes widened in understanding. "I get it now," she whispered. "Everything you've done…you were only trying to help, weren't you? You were trying to remove the evil that endangered the planet, like a doctor cutting out a life-threatening malignant tumor…and you were trying to reward your friends, who you care so much for, for everything they've done and all the times they've stood beside you because…because a part of you still _is_ Ash, isn't it? And that part of you loves us dearly. Loves all of us." She started tearing up, unaware that she was causing her Pokemon to cry as well, and that now just about everyone in the world was sobbing without knowing why. She didn't know why, but the idea that there was a higher power that did, in fact, _love_ everyone and cared for them all and was always looking out for their best interest filled her with so much happiness and relief that she wanted to burst. "I…thank you. Just, _thank you_ so much," she said finally. "For _everything._"

Arceus, or rather, Asheus said nothing. At least nothing audible to mortal ears. However, Dawn heard him, and nodded in comprehension. "Right. I understand." She turned to her Pokemon. "Okay guys, we have to go. There are a lot of people confused, scared, and anxious out there, and I'm going to need some help calming them all down before some sort of panic or riot happens. Come on!" They teleported away.

That left only Asheus, the lake trio, the dragons, and Ash's Pokemon. Pikachu, who had observed the preceding events in wary silence, looked at what was left of his trainer anxiously. Was it his turn to be transformed next?

It turned out not to be. Asheus turned to Azelf, and suddenly their old traveling companion Max appeared out of nowhere. "Huh? What am I doing-" he started to say before Azelf turned transparent and flew into his body. His skin turned blue and, like his predecessors, his pants tore open as two tails with fans and jewels at the end grew from his rear. His hair hardened and transformed into a dark blue helmet that rose to a pointed crest and had two wing-like protrusions growing out to the sides. His ears and nose shrank into his face, which turned the same shade of blue as his helmet, as his eyes grew larger and yellow and a red gemstone appeared on his forehead. He gasped as he suddenly gained the incredible power of…determination or something. He could sense the willpower and drive of all living things, the thing that pushed them to get up and try again whenever something bad happened. "Whoa…" Max said as the power and the awareness of it grew over him, as well as the knowledge of why this had been done to him.

Then he frowned. "Wait. Why didn't you fuse me with Uxie? I'd much rather have infinite knowledge than infinite willpower!" Asheus stared at him. "Oh come on, you fused him to someone else already? That's not fair! I've traveled with you much longer than she did, you knew I wouldn't have minded becoming Uxie!" Asheus stared. "So what if my hair matched Azelf and Cynthia's matched Uxie's?! That's no excuse! You combined Mesprit with Dawn even though _their _hair is different! Why didn't you just fuse her with Azelf instead, Dawn's hair is blue too!" Asheus stared. Max stammered. "Wh-what?! No, I wouldn't have wanted to combine with Mesprit instead! Then I'd have to change genders and be a, ew, girl…" Asheus stared at him. "What do you mean I should be over cooties by now? I'm not that old yet! Or ever will be…couldn't you have at least aged me up a little bit when I combined with Azelf? Now I'm gonna be a kid forever! Which has some advantages, I admit, but never getting to grow up kinda sucks!" Asheus stared at him. Max sighed and rolled his eyes. "Ugh, you sound just like my dad…because you kind of are. I guess."

Ash's Pokemon sweatdropped. The dragons burst into raucous laughter. Max sighed, giving in. "Oh well, I guess it's not _so_ bad. I get to live forever and be a god and stuff. I guess there are worse Legendaries to be fused with." He perked up. "Hey, and this means I'll be able to see Jirachi the next time he wakes up! That should be fun." Asheus stared at him. Max blushed. "Wh-what? What makes you think I'd go and mate with that Ralts I saved a while back? She's…I mean, we…I don't…" He got all flustered. The dragons laughed harder. "S-stop trying to matchmake me! Geez, don't I get a say in how I live my own life?!" Asheus stared at him. Max scowled. "Fine, fine, I get it. I'm going. Happy?" He teleported away.

The dragons kept snickering. Gliscor scratched his head in confusion, wondering what the heck had just happened. Pikachu frowned, wondering if it was there turn next. Buizel tensed for a fight…

Which proved to be unnecessary, since Asheus didn't seem to be paying attention to them. Again. Pikachu wasn't sure if he should be relieved or frustrated. Did Ash even know they were there? Did he even care anymore? Chimchar, clearly believing that he had been abandoned once more, starting crying again.

Asheus was, in fact, perfectly aware of them, he was just busy at the moment. Busy doing what, you might ask? Well…

"Wh-where am I? How did I get here?!" May Maple stammered in alarm, finding herself somewhere underwater in the middle of the ocean rather than in the middle of her shouting match (i.e. date) with Drew. Despite the fact that there was no air at all, she discovered she could breathe perfectly well, much to her surprise. When she looked down at herself, she figured out why. "Aaaahh! What's happened to me?!"

Somehow, May had been transformed into some kind of human/Kyogre hybrid. Her clothes were gone, and her smooth pink skin had been replaced by blue fishy scales and a gray underbelly. A pair of fins grew out of her back and her feet had been changed into lengthy tail fins, though at least she still had legs. Her arms had thinned out and become much wider, her hands melding with them so that she had a pair of big wing-like blue fins ending in stubby gray finger-like appendages. Red designs marked her arm fins and her sides. Her brown hair, which she had always prided herself on, was gone, so she just had a bare skull with another fin growing from the top. Most of her head was blue, but the front of her neck and lower jaw were gray. Her eyes had turned yellow and four large eyespots had formed on her forehead. She trembled and rubbed this forehead, trying to make sense of what had happened to her. "No…nooooo…this can't be happening to me. I was just having a nice argument with Drew, I can't be in the middle of the ocean looking like…like this. I must have gone insane. Yes, that's it! That Rattata-bastard Harley must have slipped some insanity peppers into my food again, just like he did in Ecruteak! Well, when I get out of here, I'm going to have Blaziken set his oh-so-precious hair on fire-"

"Mama!"

"And then I'm gonna—Manaphy?!" May cried in astonishment as a small, blue, adorable-looking Pokemon with big arm fins, bright black eyes rimmed with yellow, a glowing red jewel in his chest, and a pair of long intertwined antenna streaming from its head swam over to her. "Manaphy, is that you? Now I know I must be hallucinating, otherwise why else would I be seeing you?! And understanding everything you say…"

Manaphy gave her a worried look. "Uh, are you feeling all right, Mama? You look different…what are you doing here, anyway?"

"Oh, your mother's just going insane, dear, nothing to worry about," May said cheerfully. "And what are you doing here?"

"…I live here," Manaphy said, stating the obvious. "You know, Prince of the Sea and all?"

"Right, right, of course," May said, going along with it. "Silly me."

"So…uh…does this new form mean you're going to stay with me this time?" Manaphy asked hopefully.

May smiled and nodded. "I'd love to! Until the insanity peppers wear off and I wake up, that is."

"…Okaaayyyy…" Manaphy said, utterly confused. "Well…anyway, I'm glad you're staying! Dad's going to be thrilled to finally meet you!"

May blinked. "Dad? Wait, what? Who are you talking about?"

"You know, my Dad. I think you may have seen him before we had to split before," Manaphy said. He turned around and called into the depths of the sea, "HEY DAD! COME OVER HERE! MAMA'S FINALLY BACK!"

"Hmm? The hell? Hang on, I'll be right over!" A deep, resonant voice boomed back. A great, looming shadow rose up from the lower darkness of the ocean, and May trembled in fear as she found herself face to eye with the leviathan super-ancient Pokemon Kyogre. The giant blue whale stared incredulously when he saw her. "What the…May?!"

_Harley must have put in an extra dose of crazy this time,_ she thought desperately to herself and trying to convince herself that she had _not_ just heard Kyogre speaking in Drew's voice. "Drew? Is that you?!"

"Apparently," said the confused super-ancient Water Pokemon. "And you're…I'm not sure what the heck you are."

"She's my Mama, and you're my Papa!" Manaphy said happily, doing a little loop in the water. "And now we can live together as a big, happy family!"

Drew and May both sweatdropped. "Harley must have put an extra dose of crazy on those insanity peppers," Drew muttered.

"Oh, so he got you too?" May said. "Or…wait, are you actually Drew, or a hallucination induced by Harley's evil peppers?"

Drew frowned. "I don't…_think_ I'm a hallucination. I thought you were one, to be honest."

"Well, maybe you're a hallucination who thinks he's real?" May suggested.

"How do I know _you're_ not a hallucination that thinks she's real?" Drew countered.

May frowned in thought. "Well, then either we're both hallucinations, or we're sharing the same hallucination. Because the idea that this is all real and that we're both here, talking and breathing underwater, and _not human_ on top of all that, is too ridiculous to consider."

"Definitely," Drew agreed. "Wait, can people even share hallucinations?"

"People can share dreams when Psychics are involved, I don't see why not," said May.

Manaphy, who had been listening to the debate in confusion, spoke up. "Wait, does that mean that _I_ don't exist?!" he cried, horrified at the idea.

"Don't worry, honey, I'll always love you even if you are just a figment of my imagination," May said sweetly.

"Okay…" Manaphy said uncertainly. "And how about you, Daddy?"

Drew blinked. "What? I, um…" May glared daggers at him, and he quickly acquiesced. "Yeah, sure. What she said."

"Yay!" Manaphy cheered happily.

"I am so killing Harley when we wake up," Drew growled.

"Me too," May agreed. Neither of them knew that Harely was _already_ dead thanks to Ash's Judgment and that they weren't hallucinating, but they'd figure that out on their own once the denial wore off.

May and Drew weren't the only ones in denial at that moment. "NOOOOO!" Articuno shrieked. "THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!"

"It's all just a dream…it's all just a dream…it's all just a dream…" Zapdos whimpered, pinching himself repeatedly. "WHY AREN'T I WAKING UP?!"

"No…no…noooooo," Moltres whimpered, arms wrapped around his knees as he rocked on the ground. "This is too horrible…how could this possibly be happening?! We're…HUMANS!"

"Look at me! I'm HIDEOUS!" Articuno wailed, looking at her flawless snow-white skin, ruby-red eyes, voluptuous figure, statuesque curves, and luxurious ankle-length blue hair.

"I know! And I'm not much better!" Zapdos agreed mournfully as he looked at his bulging muscles, incredibly handsome face, and spiky yellow bishonen hair.

"No wings…no feathers…forced to walk on the ground all day…this is awful!" Moltres cried as he tried not to look at his equally bulging muscles, impressive physique, and long mane of fiery red hair. "How can humans live like this?! This is unbearable!"

"WHAT DID WE DO TO DESERVE THIS?!" they cried in unison.

Tracey, Delia, and Professor Oak, who had been transformed into the replacements of the bird trio, sweatdropped. "Being human isn't _that_ bad…" Delia murmured.

"Whiners," Oak grumbled.

"Well, I'm off to fuck the missus and play with my kid. Should be back in a few hundred years or so. Don't do anything stupid like get into an argument and destroy the world while I'm gone!" Lugia said, donning a hat and flying off with a suitcase in one wing. The new birds sweatdropped, while the old ones sobbed inconsolably.

Back on Spear Pillar, Asheus turned his attention to his Pokemon. Pikachu and the others stiffened, wondering if they were finally about to receive whatever bizarre 'gift' the great God had in mind for them…and groaned in exasperation when he turned away. Would he make up his mind already?! What else was left for him to do?!

Something rather important, actually. Much to Pikachu's surprise, Misty, his Pikachupi and Ash's one true love no matter how much either of them denied it, abruptly appeared…completely naked and covered in suds, as if she had just been in the shower, which she had been. The dragons reared back in alarm, the Pokemon squawked, and Asheus just stared. Misty blinked, for a moment not registering where she was, and then she screamed and covered herself. "HOLY SHIT! WHAT THE %$&*# IS GOING ON HERE?! WHERE AM I?! HOW'D I GET HERE?! WHY AM I SURROUNDED BY POKEMON AND IN THE _NUDE?!_"

For the first time, Asheus showed some sign of emotion. He sweatdropped and his black cheeks reddened very slightly. He quickly remedied the situation by suddenly making Misty bone-dry and in her usual attire. This did little to calm her down, however, because the fact that all of this was happening to her made her realize that she was in the presence of a Pokemon so powerful he could alter reality at his will and probably erase her existence with a single thought, something not even Mewtwo had ever been able to do. Naturally, she was scared shitless. The fact that he was backed by three enormous and very deadly-looking dragons did not help matters. "Wh-who are you? What do you want with me?" she asked in fright.

Instead of responding, Asheus just glanced slightly to Misty's right and Mew teleported in from out of nowhere. "Mewwwww!" the pink kitten chirped cheerfully. Asheus's eyes lightened and the dragons roared happily, as if they were delighted to see Mew, which was kind of weird. Pikachu and the other Pokemon stared at each other in confusion, having lost any grasp they had of what was going on long ago and not the slightest idea of what to do about it.

"Um…hello there?" Misty said nervously, eyeing Mew nervously and wondering if the source of all life was about to eat her face or something like that.

She was half-right. Without warning, Mew lunged at her. Misty started to scream, but broke off when Mew somehow melded into her body. "Wh-what the-" Misty stammered. She started glowing. She looked at herself in horror as her skin began to emit a brilliant radiance. "What…what's happening to me?!" she screamed, utterly terrified.

Pikachu looked at Asheus in horror as his friends chattered in fear around him. This couldn't be happening. Was Pikapi actually killing Pikachupi?! No! He would never do that! At least…not the Pikapi he knew…

He needn't have worried, however. Misty cried out one last time before a blinding flash of light emanated from her, causing the mortal Pokemon to flinch and cover their eyes while the deities stared, unblinking, into the heart of the blaze…

And when it faded, Ash's Pokemon's jaws dropped. Buizel developed a huge nosebleed, which was odd since he wasn't usually into tall human-looking chicks. Chimchar fainted. Gliscor couln't stop himself from drooling. A bush on Grotle's back spontaneously sprouted flowers. Pikachu felt somewhat uncomfortable that he suddenly found his Pikachupi attractive. Even Staraptor was turned on.

Why were they all reacting this way? Well, that would be because Misty had been transformed into the most beautiful woman on the planet. Growing in size to be a match for Ash in height, her figure had matured significantly into a statuesque beauty that outshone all of her sisters combined and many of the other women they had met over the years whom had driven Brock crazy with lust. She had perfectly proportioned hips, legs that seemed to go on forever (though the feet were oddly long for some reason), and those big round mammary things humans seemed to be so attracted to for some reason (Pikachu didn't see why, or understand why they tended to be so big, no female Pokemon he knew needed glands that large, aside from Jynx, but everyone knew that Jynx were…well, sort of the whores of the Pokemon world.) were of a very prominent size. Her clothes discarded again, her skin was covered in soft, short pink fur so fine that it almost looked like she didn't have fur at all, and it was just her skin that was that color. A very long, thin, whip-like prehensile tail ending in a large bulge grew from her rear, twitching and twisting about as if of its own volition. Her head had become somewhat more feline and less human but was still very attractive, with big baby blue eyes and triangle-shaped ears emerging from the top of her luxurious pink hair, which flowed down to her waist. Pikachu supposed that Mewtwo might look remotely like this if he were female. And hot. Neither of which he was. (Though he supposed some found Mewtwo attractive, for whatever reason. Females were weird that way.)

A joyful smile on her gorgeous face, the being that had once been Misty (Now Mewsty?) gracefully walked over to Asheus, wrapped herself around him (literally, thanks to her tail) and gave him a big kiss on the lips, even though he didn't have any. They both closed their eyes and leaned into each other, passionately making out. It was disturbingly erotic. The dragons coughed and awkwardly looked away. Buizel passed out from blood loss. Chimchar woke up, took one look at the couple, and passed out again. Gliscor stopped drooling, but only because his mouth had become bone-dry. Grotle abruptly evolved into Torterra. Staraptor swooned. Pikachu tried, and failed, to keep from being aroused, incredibly embarrassed that a rather large part of him was enjoying this display.

After ten minutes, the divine couple finally broke their kiss. Neither of them looked the slightest bit out of breath from their exertion. Purring happily, Mewsty rubbed herself up against Asheus, putting her head in the crook of his neck to nuzzle him. "I missed you…" she whispered sensually. Then she pouted, rather cutely at that. "What took you so long? Both of you, that is. The Misty in me's been waiting _years_ for that human blockhead to realize he was in love with her, while the rest of me's had to putter about for _centuries_ until you got back from wherever you were! I mean, sure, the casual sex I had on the side was fun, but nothing compared to being with you, honey." Asheus gave her what the mortal Pokemon thought _might _have been an apologetic look. She burst into a radiant smile that literally seemed to brighten up the mountaintop. "Awww, I can never stay mad at you! You always know _just_ the right thing to say! Well, _part_ of you does, anyway…hopefully it'll rub off on your other part eventually."

She gave him another kiss, though not as lengthy as the last one, thankfully. The dragons fidgeted uncomfortably, clearly not as…ah…interested in the foreplay as Ash's Pokemon were. Then again, would _you_ like to watch your parents being all romantic and sexy around each other? I mean, yeah, they thought their mom was hot (who wouldn't?), but they weren't into her _that_ way… Anyway, when they finished kissing again, Mewsty smiled, ran her fingers through Asheus' hair, and said, "Let's go home. I wanna have sex with you for a few thousand years, I'd say we're overdue for another kid or a hundred."

Asheus nodded. Abruptly, another pillar of light appeared in the middle of the Spear Pillar, stretching from where Cyrus's machine had once been to the epicenter of the eclipse. Looking somewhat relieved, the dragons quickly hurried into the beam and disappeared before their parents could put on any more public displays of affection. Mewsty slipped her arm into Asheus's, and they started for the pillar.

Pikachu's shoulders sagged in disappointment. It looked like they really were going to be abandoned after all. Forlorn, he turned away from what had once been his trainer, trying to figure out what he and the others were supposed to do now…

When Mewsty's voice called out to him. "Hey, aren't you guys coming?"

Pikachu blinked and turned in surprise. "Pika?" They wanted them to come with them?

Arsheus nodded. Mewsty smiled and said, "Yeah, it wouldn't be the same without you guys! Besides, how else are you gonna get the immortality and godhood you deserve after all the years you've stood by us if you don't come?"

Pikachu blinked again and looked to the others, who were just as surprised. Chimchar, realizing he wasn't being abandoned after all, burst into tears…of joy this time. They quickly organized themselves and grabbed Buizel, who was still unconscious from blood loss, and ran over to join Mewsty and Arceus. Together, they entered the pillar and vanished. The light itself disappeared as well, retracting back up into the heavens. The celestial reunion over, the eclipse ended, the shadow passing away from the Sun and causing light to shine on the world once more…and what a strange and wonderful new world it would be.

Some time later, Jessie, James, and Meowth, dirty and bedraggled and exhausted, dragged themselves over the edge of the cliff and looked around in confusion, seeing that the Spear Pillar was completely empty save for a headless Gyarados corpse that was starting to attract flies. Befuddled, they scratched their heads and looked to each other for answers, but none were forthcoming. "Do you get the feeling we missed something?" James asked finally.

"Or that someone forgot about us?" Jessie asked.

"Hey, what's dat bright thing heading right towards us?" Meowth asked just before they got hit by a rather late Judgment attack. Whether it killed them or turned them into some strange hybrid creatures or laid some other form of punishment altogether on them is up for the reader to decide.

Elsewhere…

Paul groaned and regained consciousness. His head hurt like hell, and his mouth felt…strange. His teeth were aching for some reason. "Ugh…what…happened?" The last thing he could remember was a beam of light shooting down at him, and then…_incredible_ pain, followed by darkness.

As his vision cleared up, he saw he was in the same clearing he had been in before that light had hit him. There was a small spring nearby. He dragged himself over to the spring to get a drink and clear his head, wondering as he did so why his body felt…strange.

He got his answer when he reached the water and saw his reflection. His now-tiny, beady eyes widened in horror. "No. NO. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

It couldn't be. This sort of thing didn't happen to people outside of stupid stories written by Pokephiles and fetishists! But as he tried and failed to wake himself up, and felt himself to make sure he wasn't seeing things and his reflection was the real deal, he had no choice but to admit the truth: that somehow, in some way, he had become a Bidoof, the lowliest of all Pokemon. "How could this have happened?" he whispered in disbelief. "And why? Why me? And why a Bidoof, for that matter?!"

"I think the answer to that should be obvious…" an unfamiliar voice growled.

Startled, Paul whirled about and found himself surrounded by his six Pokemon; Torterra, Ursaring, Weavile, Gliscor, Honchkrow, and Magmar, all of whom looked as if this were the happiest moment of their lives. "Wh-what?! What're you guys doing out of your Pokeballs…wait, where are your Pokeballs?!" He realized that they seemed to have vanished along with his clothing.

"Oh, those? We don't need them anymore," said Ursaring with a savage grin. Paul started. Ursaring could talk?! Since when?!

"What…you can talk?! But…how…" Paul stammered.

"Oh, we were always able to talk. And think," Honchkrow said coolly.

"You see, Paul, the thing is, we're actually living, feeling creatures, not just toys you can catch, play with, and abandon when you're tired of us," Magmar said.

"And we think it's about time you learned the penalty of abusing Pokemon…that sort of thing's frowned upon, especially in the new world the Almighty Asheus is creating," said Gliscor.

"Ash…Asheus?! What…what does that loser have to do with any of this?!" Paul demanded.

That turned out to be the wrong thing to say, as his comment somehow made his Pokemon even _angrier_. "So now you're not just an abuser, but a blasphemer?!" Weavile said, sharpening his claws. "Well then, I think it's time you learned your lesson. It's long past due."

"Wait! Stop! What are you doing?!" Paul cried in alarm as they advanced on him. "I order you to stop!"

Torterra sighed and turned away, unwilling to watch his former trainer's demise, no matter how deserving of it he was. "Sorry Paul, but you're not our trainer. In fact, in just a minute…" He couldn't hold back a grin. "You won't be anything anymore."

The screaming could be heard for miles.

…

The End

…


	25. Poké New Year

Poké New Year

Author's Notes: Happy New Year everybody! This chapter is written by Ryu The Weredragon (that's me), tazkol master of emeralds, Rainbowdragon, and Light the Lucario and edited by Ri2. Amazingly, we got this written in five days. That's a new record for me! Hope we can pull something like this off again in the future (though we probably won't.)

____________

It was December 31st, New Year's Eve, in the world of Pokemon. Ash had managed to finish the Sinnoh league early to come home for the holidays and was surprised to see that many of his closest friends had congregated in his hometown of Pallet for a New Year's Party. Misty, May, Max, Norman, Caroline, Ritchie, Gary and Drew were all there, along with a few new faces around that he didn't recognize.

Even Tory, a childhood friend from before he had become a trainer, had returned home. Tori's blue eyes remained bright as ever and his brown hair had been cut from when they had last known each other - he used to sport the same look as Ash, but now his hair was cut more "normally". He claimed he used to have the same problems as Ritchie about being mistaken for Ash. Ash thought he looked a bit pale and sickly, something that worried him a little, but he was glad to see him just the same.

"Hello D... Dawn. It's T-Tobi from school. Your mom asked me to deliver this dress you wanted from home for tonight, I wouldn't have stuck around but Delia insisted, she took my Salamence away just to make sure," a smaller almost nerdy boy said timidly as he handed Dawn a box. His hands where shaking and his face was beat red but Dawn didn't even seem to notice him. He almost collapsed when her hand grazed his as she took the box and went inside to change. "Ahhhhh…she touched me…_she touched me…_"

Sean, a trainer who retired from the Pokémon League trek, came down to see his best friend Misty, who had invited him to the party. He was wearing a normal black baseball cap with a red long-sleeved shirt and blue jean pants. He only had one Pokeball on him, containing his faithful Typhlosion, Serene, who had single-handedly won many of his battles.

Misty looks up to see her childhood friend and smiled a bit as she shook his hand. "It's been a long time, Sean. How have you been?" she asked.

"Very well. Just wondering, is that your boyfriend over there?" He pointed to Ash, causing Misty to turn red.

Later on that evening, and after a severely painful beating for Sean, the Ketchum house was packed with people as food and drinks were set out, music played, people chatted, and Mimey stumbled around dead-drunk. He really couldn't handle his liquor.

Standing in the corner was a strange man who only referred to himself as Michael Cornelius Twoson, but he preferred to be called Mike. Ash, Misty and Brock found him curiously familiar, but couldn't place him as anyone they'd met on their travels.

Tobi walked over to Mike "Excuse me, sir?" he said

"Yes?" Mike asked.

"Are you a psychic by any chance?" Tobi asked shyly.

"...Why yes, I am. How did you know that?" Mike asked, somewhat alarmed. Had this child seen through his disguise? That meant he'd need to do another mass brainwashing. Or blow up the house. Possibly both.

"I'm a low level empath" Tobi explained "I realize it may go against your morals, but could you do me a favor?"

Mike frowned suspiciously. "What kind of favor?"

"That girl over there." Tobi pointed to Dawn. "Could you tell me w-wh-what she thinks of me?" His face turned beet-red.

Mike raised an eyebrow at the odd request.

_Nearby_...

"I've really missed you on the road, Misty", Ash said as he took a sip of soda. They both blushed when he realized what he said. "I mean your Gyarados would have made things a lot easier."

Misty frowned. "Is my Gyarados the _only_ thing you missed about me?"

Ash started. "Ack! N-no, that's not what I…I mean, I missed other things, too!"

"Like?" Misty asked.

"Um…" Ash's mind raced as he tried to think of an answer that wouldn't get him pummeled.

Sean grinned as he watched Misty's reaction and wondered how he could get the two together. Sadly his plotting was interrupted when his lovesick Typhlosion decide to come out and glomped him, interrupting the lovebirds' meeting.

Tory sighed. "I wonder when people will realize that if they don't butt in, nothing's ever going to go forward with those two..." He had a minor coughing fit. Quickly realizing he was coughing up blood, he excused himself from the area.

Drew sat on the couch admiring himself in a pocket mirror. May sat next to him. She had seen the interaction between Ash and Misty, and it was giving her ideas. She looked at Drew, and a blush slowly crept up her face.

Sean and his Typhlosion where having a nice dinner together. Sean always treated Serene as an equal and she ate at the table with him, rather than on the ground like most other Pokemon. Gary and Dawn were having a very interesting conversation about Pokemon Contests. They seemed like they were really bonding, much to Tobi's dismay.

Ash's Pokémon where scattered around the room having their own antics. There was a brief scare when someone smelt something burning, but it just turned out that Charizard, Squirtle and Sceptile where branding Grottle for some reason. After the fires had been put out, Charizard was made to go outside until he admitted his mistake and promised not to set the house on fire, Squirtle chatted up the ladies, and Sceptile spent time throwing cards, which spun at terminal velocity into the walls. Max sat watching, mystified by the ninja Pokemon's skill.

Pikachu wasn't as energetic as usual. He seemed a bit depressed and lonely for some reason. The others found it odd that he didn't even react to Bunneary's flirting like he usually did.

"Man...Maybe it was a bad idea to come back," Tory muttered to himself. "When I break it to them, it's only going to ruin everyone's fun. I probably should have just died alone."

"Gengar," something said from the shadows as a Gengar floated into the room. _That's no way to talk,_ the words blared through Tory's mind. _Trust me, I died alone. It's not fun. At least, not until the hot Ghost-babes showed up…_

Sean was walking by with his Typhlosion when he over heard Tory's moping. "What was that about dying alone?"

"...I'm terminally ill. This will be my last New Years. I'm going to die in a week," Tory said quietly.

Sean was shocked by this information. As he tried to think of something to say that didn't sound like a cheesy platitude, Serene gave Tory a soft lick to cheer him up. "Thanks," the boy said quietly.

_Ah,_ the Gengar said. _Yet you act as though you can't enjoy what's left of your life. Take it from someone who knows, you should enjoy what you have left_._ And then you can enjoy what comes next even better, because being dead rules! On second thought, you can go ahead and be depressed, it's not like life is that big a deal anyway. It's so disposable, anyway. I don't really see why you care so much._

Tory sweatdropped. "Gee, thanks for the encouragement, Gengar. Now I feel much better about my imminent demise."

_Helping people is what I die for. Now, did anyone see a sexy little Misdreavus float through here? I know who I'm gonna be kissing when the ball drops!_ The Gengar floated off.

There was a knock at the door. Everyone stopped, wondering who it could be. "Ash, get the door, please," Delia said.

"Why do I have to get it?" Ash whined.

"Because I'm your mother and I said so," Delia said.

Ash sighed. "Oh, fine."

Ash went over to the front door, opening it and causing everyone to instantly shiver as a huge gust of snow and icy wind blew through the room. A tall, dark figure rushed in and slammed the door shut before everyone could freeze to death. "I guess my coat wasn't good enough, ugh, my feet hurt, walking is such a pain," the newcomer grumbled, stomping his feet to get the snow off of them and unfortunately getting them all over the carpet, something Delia would later make him pay dearly for.

"Oh, Nathan! It's nice to see you again," Ash said, welcoming the non-trainer to the party. Nathan couldn't trust himself with a Pokémon.

Nathan smiled. "Same here. We only saw each other a couple of times but it was nice of you to invite me over, thank you."

"Yeah," Ash said.

Plotting revenge against Nathan, Delia went around the house giving out little sheets of paper and pens. "What are these for?" Tobi asked

"To write down you New Year's Wish, silly," Delia responded.

In the world of Pokémon, it's a tradition to write your wishes for the new year on slips of paper on New Year's Eve, so that the gods of the Pokémon world would know your deepest desires. Someone who was worthy would be granted their wish on New Year's Day, much like the Japanese tradition of Tantaba.

Nathan blinked. "New Year's wish? Oh boy, _**that**_ little tradition?"

Sean smiled at the paper and looked at his Typhlosion lovingly. "I wish for Serene to find a happy mate...The last few ones broke her heart. I want her to be really happy," he whispered as he wrote down his wish, oblivious to what would make her _really_ happy.

"...There's only one thing that I regret in my life. I may not be alive for much longer, but..." Tory murmured, writing his wish. "I wish that I could fall in love."

_Why don't you just wish to live longer, stupid?_ His Gengar asked.

"Because…" Tory paused. "Oh damn, why _didn't_ I write that down? Too late now."

_It's for times like this that death exists…to weed out the morons and keep them from polluting the gene pool,_ the Gengar said. _Cheers for natural selection!_

"Shut up, Gengar," said Tory. Gengar cackled and stuck out his tongue.

"I wish she would know how I feel," Tobi whispered as he scribbled his wish down.

Mike quietly wrote something on his paper, without letting anyone around know what it was he really wanted.

Nathan looked at the paper quietly, thinking about how much his feet hurt. _I wish I could travel from place to place more easily then walking, that way my feet wouldn't be sore all the time,_ Nathan thought to himself. He wrote it down.

"I wish I could be more beautiful," Dawn told herself as she wrote her wish down. She was already quite pretty, but her terrible self-esteem issues blinded her to this truth.

"Pikachu's been down in the dumps lately. I could easily wish for something for myself, but I really just want him to feel better..." Ash said.

Nathan chuckled. "Hey, at least you aren't being selfish right? Unlike me…and pretty much everyone else…"

"Yeah," Ash agreed.

Misty scribbled down her wish without saying anything. Everyone knew what hers was anyway, everyone except the person it was directed to. _I wish to be with Ash_, she thought to herself.

"I wish for true beauty", Drew said as he wrote his down halfheartedly, not really putting his heart into his wish.

_I wish that me and Drew had a relationship like Ash and Misty's_, May wrote, failing to consider the fact that Ash and Misty's 'relationship' was largely complicated by denial, stubbornness on both sides, physical abuse, and Ash being completely oblivious to love.

"I wish that people would stop mistaking me for Ash" Ritchie said as he wrote down his wish. Delia promptly looked down at the boy she was hugging, let go sheepishly, and went to find Ash.

"I wanna be really awesome when I grow up", Max declared as he wrote his wish down.

Brock wrote _I wish for a harem and to be really attractive! Yeah, that's it!_ He dared not speak aloud because he was afraid of what the others, especially the women present, would say. He was correct to think so.

"I wish I was young again," Oak said as he jotted down his wish.

"My only wish is that you knew who your Father was," Delia told her son after she made sure it was Ash.

"Yeah, me too," Ash said.

"I thought your wish was for Pikachu," Nathan said.

"Oh, right. Never mind then," said Ash.

"My wish is already fulfilled, but... I guess I kinda wish Scyther would feel better about himself," Tracey stated as he watched a rather morose elderly Scyther sitting on the couch trying to grab a bowl of chips hovering just out of reach, Tracey's Venonat laughing the whole time.

"Hmmph... I wish my worthless Pokémon would become stronger," Paul said as he glared at his Electabuzz, who lost yet again in an arm wrestling match against Ash's Squirtle, despite trying to cheat by using Thundershock.

"I wish I knew more about the world around us," Gary wrote. "To answer questions like...why are dark types the way they are?"

"Say, shouldn't the Pokémon get a turn?" Ash asked.

Professor Oak shook his head. "How? Most Pokemon are illiterate, not to mention lack opposable thumbs." Quite a few Pokemon who were in fact literate and had wishes of their own heard this, and swore to punish the Professor for his sweeping generalization at a later date.

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Ash said, sweatdropping.

Tory laughed. After all these years, Ash hadn't changed a bit. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

- - -

_Meanwhile, on Mt. Coronet..._

The mountaintop was lit up so brightly that if not for the cloud cover the lights would have been seen for miles. Hundreds of mews danced and merrily cheered in the air as the legendary Pokemon held their own New Year's party.

Celebi and Dialga where talking about the future (literally!). Palkia sat with Darkrai and Cresselia. Giratina and Shaymin danced to the Mews' music along with Lugia and his wife. Silver was flying around excited to see his whole family. Ho-oh and her three hounds sang to the gentle humming emanated by the Mews' while the three idiot birds lay in the center bound and gagged. Beside the three elemental birds Groudon and Kyogre where also forcibly contained, and Manaphy was playing in a solid steel crib. Rayquaza and Latias had snuck away earlier to get some alone time, prompting Latios to look for them, unsuccessfully. Heatran and his twenty-seven beautiful wives sat in the corner drinking and laughing and having a great time.

In the very center of it all hovered Arceus with his queen, the original Mew beside him. "My children," Arceus said in a voice as faint as a whisper yet the area dropped to dead silence in a nanosecond to hear it. "As always, the time has come for us to bestow a gift on deserving mortals to commemorate the holy day and the ushering in of the New Year. Will the marked Mew please come forward?" Arceus called out

A jet black Mew flew towards him from the group surrounding the mountaintop. A silver crescent moon mark sat on her brow. "What is your name, my blessed daughter?" Arceus asked softly.

_I am Mewn,_ the Mew said, her voice devoid of emotion.

"Mewn, have you chosen the mortals we will bless this year?" he asked.

_This year I have scanned the planet to see where the greatest concentration of pure wishes would be centered. Although not all are pure, I have selected the house of the Chosen One and all within it to receive our blessing, as you see fit, my Father,_ she said respectfully.

Arceus looked up to the cloud of mews "Is there any disagreement among the Mews as to this selection?"

_THERE IS NONE!_, a thunderous united voice rang through the minds of all present

"And among you, my children?" Arceus asked, directing his attention to the various legendaries

"I don't like him," Groudon somehow shouted through his gag. The other gagged legendaries mumbled and shook, showing their agreement

"Shut up, you five don't count," Lugia stated.

Arceus turned to the Mew at his side. "…And you, my Queen?"

_Do it!_ she said simply, her heavenly voice echoing through all their minds. Most of the lower legendaries where knocked unconscious from blood loss due to nosebleeds, Darkrai and Cresselia's heated argument turned into a passionate make-out session, Giratina and Shaymin…looked at each other awkwardly and decided not to do anything, Heatran found himself in the midst of a group of very needy women, the Lugias decided to have another kid, the Mews happily prepared for the orgy that would happen later, and somewhere Rayquaza and Latias started another lovemaking session, one that would last for the next nine hours. Latios would not be happy when he found them.

"So be it then, at midnight tonight, the household of the Chosen One shall receive our blessing. So I have said, and so it shall BE!" a ripple went through time and space at Arceus' last word, causing Dialga and Palkia to sneeze.

The cloud of Mews began pairing off to what would be the start of a massive orgy, Arceus and his mate as well as Lugia and his family left hastily, preferring to have their own celebrations in private.

- - -

_Back with Ash..._

Nathan was debating with Oak the possibility of a Pokemon who could teach other Pokemon how to write. Sean was busy sleeping on the couch with his Pokemon Serene snuggling close to him. Tory was trying to come up with the best way to break the bad news to Ash and the others. Misty was dreamingly looking at Ash, wondering just what she could do to make him realize how much she loved him.

Nathan easily saw this from Misty, "Are you going to keep having the problem of not spitting it out? Because if you won't then I will!" Nathan knew he was risking a kick to the face, but this sort of obvious beating around the bush was something he absolutely couldn't stand.

"What do you know?" Misty snapped... A pause, "What was your name again?" Nathan sighed.

Ash was looking at Pikachu, wondering why his buddy seemed to be so depressed lately. _Why is my buddy so depressed lately?_

"Anything else to eat? It looks like most of the guests have cleared out the buffet" Tory asked.

"There's plenty in the kitchen in the hiding places Mom doesn't want me to know about! Come on!" Ash said, snapping out of his thought process.

Tory got up and followed Ash to get some food.

_A short time later…_

The whole group got up to watch the countdown on television. They were so focused on it they didn't see the paper slips they had wrote their wishes on burst into green flames and burn to a crisp.

Nathan suddenly noticed the wishes were missing. "Um, weren't there papers over here just a few minutes ago?"

Ash started to scratch at his ears. They had grown large and oddly shaped. "Yeah, the ones we wrote our wishes down on, why do you ask?"

Nathan blinked as he looked at Ash's ears. Convinced someone had spiked the punch and he was hallucinating, he shook his head, "Well, they're gone now. Where did they go?" Nathan began searching the immediate area, deliberately turning his attention away from Ash and his weird ears that weren't there.

"Aren't they... Hey, you're right, they are gone!" Ash said. It was then that he noticed that his face was pulling out into a muzzle with orange fur. Oddly, this didn't seem unusual to him in the slightest.

Sean woke up and gasped at the site of Ash's new muzzle. "What is wrong with your face?" he gasped

Nathan, hearing this from another room, muttered to himself, "Ok, ok don't panic, don't turn around, you know how those stories and movies turn out and it's always when someone does that that they begin to panic, so I'm not going to do that!"

"This is strange," Tobi acknowledged

"What are you guys talking about?" Ash asked, more oblivious than usual.

"Ash... you've got a muzzle," Tory told his friend.

Ash blinked at him. "I've always had one."

"..Wait, what? Okay, this isn't even your normal level of dense, Ashy-boy," Gary stated. Sean gripped Serene worriedly and hoped that nothing bad would happen.

There was a thunk as Nathan groaned, "Ow! Okay, okay, so I hit my head on things a lot, I did not need that new bump on my head, Mr. Table." It was an obvious attempt to calm the tension in the air, but it wasn't helping.

A long tail with a thunderbolt at the end snaked out from Ash's back as orange fur spread across his body, "Seriously, what are you kids talking about? I've never been better. It's too early in the year for April Fools."

"...'Kids?'" Tory trailed off.

Nathan was now in a panic looking everywhere for the slips of paper, "I...had a dream like this once, or read a fanfiction about it somewhere." Nathan remembered his wish, and groaned. "Darn it, I thought I did it for tradition...if they go by how my wish was worded then I'll most likely gets wings of some sort...ugh! Why didn't I wish for something more useful?"

Ash started to grow at a strange rate. His shoes tore apart as his feet became long digigrade paws very similar to those of a Raichu. He no longer looked like a seventeen year-old boy but a twenty-eight year-old man with years of intensive training. Nathan blatantly ignored Ash's little problem. So did Ash, who didn't even consider it a problem. "Come on. What's the matter with you? Don't tell me the berry punch got fermented." Yellow electric pouches appeared on his cheeks, and his clothes started to rip due to his newly formed muscles. His now large hands shredded his gloves and became brown handpaws. Ash's spiky hair changed color to match his orange fur and the rest of his body.

Nathan whimpered as no one seemed to be paying any attention to him, "They're not here, where are they, they're not here and that means...." Several images from TF stories and pictures that he liked to look at—and not because that sort of thing turned him on!--went through his head, "We're all gonna be like Ash or transform that way." Nathan came out, looking dejected, "No sign of them in the kitchen, I'm checking upstairs," he said in an almost dead sort of voice, resigned to his fate.

Misty looked around in confusion. Everyone noticed her nose was slowly turning brown "What, do you guys have a problem with Chus or something?" she said as she went over and put her arms around Ash. Misty's changes seemed to be moving faster than Ash's. She released him, showing her face had completely reconfigured into a muzzle with two big Raichu ears on top of her head. Different shades of brown fur covered her body as her feet broke her shoes, shifting into digigrade paws. Her electric sacks sparked as they grew in, rendering her clothing little more then ash—not to be confused with the other anthropomorphic Raichu--luckily her fur covered her body well enough. She quickly grew taller as her body became more feminine. Her flat chest ballooned out into a rather stunning bosom. A long tail ending in a thunderbolt grew out to curl easily around Ash's, the tips connecting and sending sparks between them. Her hands shifted into large, dark chocolaty brown paws. She seemed about the same age as Ash, give or take a year or two.

Brock began to absentmindedly scratch his ears. His body was getting covered in a brown coat of fur. Cream-colored tufts formed around his wrists and at the ends of his ears. His eyebrows became cream-colored and grew out long. His squinted eyes opened to reveal large deep brown pools that pulled in whoever looked at them. His ears moved to the top of his head, becoming longer and thicker as they fell to just above his feet.

"Boy, its hot", Brock commented as he began to remove his clothing. As he took his shirt off two lumps began to swell on his chest, becoming rounded full breasts. Down below Brock's male parts began to rearrange into the female equivalent. Her hands became dainty slender paws. Her feet slid out of their shoes, also becoming slender and dainty. Two cream-colored tufts grew just above the ankles. Over her butt a small ball of cream fur formed a small cotton tail. The female Lopunny moaned as her face became a muzzle. Unlike her friends, she seemed to only age a bit, ending up around twenty-five. The female formerly known as Brock, now Betty, sat down on the couch and began fiddling with one of her ears.

Gary was just minding his own business, not even noticing that his skin became jet black. His hair fell off and in its place a dark pink red plume of feathers formed. He lost several inches in height and his clothes slowly fell off him. Deep red eyes replaced his old ones and his muzzle stretched out. His fingers went down from five to four alongside his toes and slowly grew into big white claws. His old human memories shattered across the wind to be replaced with those of his new old life, that of the silent and mysterious twenty-eight year-old Gary the Weavile. The newly Anthro-Weavile nodded at his long-time rival Ash in acknowledgement and went into the corner, crossing his arms.

- - -

Nathan had taken off upstairs, Oak followed while commenting, "Now Nathan, I can understand wanting to leave the scene of an...obviously troubling situation but you have to admit that looking for those slips of paper is now pointless." A red and cream colored tail shot out of the seat of his pants. He started using less complicated terms as he began to shrink. "I mean if the paper is gone, it's gone, and it's bye-bye no more paper." Nathan stared as Oak took off his clothes, revealing red scales with a cream tummy spread all over his body. His hair was turning a nice shade of black as he now took his shoes off, revealing red feet topped with sharp cone-like white claws. Nathan backpedaled and fell on the steps as Oak's hands turned a nice shade of orange red, starting at the wrists and moving outward. His arms got a bit shorter and his legs were now very short. A long tail grew from his rear, ending in a flaming tip. Oak looked up at him with eyes that were now big and very blue. "Why did big boy fall down and go boom?" Nathan freaked and rushed up the steps as the six year-old Charmander cried, "Why is the big boy afraid of me?!? I just want to be friends!"

Ash's Charizard, Dante, was now an anthropomorphic Pokémon. He walked up the stairs gently and looked down at the crying boy. "What's wrong, Sammy?"

"Daddy, he just...he just ran away from me. Am I scary, Daddy?" Samuel, referred to as Sammy because of his young age, asked the Charizard.

Dante patted his Adoptive son's head, "No, you're not scary. I'm sure he just thought of something important he had to do."

- - -

Nathan found the bathroom and promptly shut himself in, "Crazy, this is absolutely crazy, I...I wanna go home now...this is nuts...what will Ash's mom think or Misty's sisters...or will they just accept it as a fact of life? Oh man..."

Sean had followed Nathan, worried about how he was clearly losing his mind, and tried to open the door only to find it locked. "Nathan, are you okay?!" Sean called out.

"Whaddaya think?!? This is nuts! Absolutely nuts! I've never seen anything like it before in my life...Good Arceus!" Nathan shot back.

"Just calm down! Nothing is going on!" Sean answered.

Nathan was holding his head in his hands, curled up in a nice ball. Suddenly a new yellow tail with a white underside ripped straight through the seat of his pants, though he seemed not to notice. "Are you sure nothing's happening?" he asked. Nathan's head was going a bit fuzzy. Why had he locked himself in the bathroom again? Didn't Dante's adoptive son invite him to play? So why did he run from him? Nathan pondered this as two new feathery antennas grew from his head. A cone shaped horn grew from his forehead as yellow scales started spreading down his face. Nathan continued to think. Okay, Ash and Misty had been married for awhile now, Betty had her own male harem which she boasted was the best in the world (he rolled his eyes at that) and where did that leave him? As Nathan's body began to bulk up with muscle and fat, ripping his clothes to shreds, his legs got a bit shorter, though not too short, as yellow and white scales started cascading down his newly revealed chest. As they finished covering his belly the yellow scales covered his feet which promptly grew five cone-shapes claws. At the same time the scales spread to his arms and hands. The hands gained the same type and number of claws as his feet as two blue wings burst from his back. He had grown quite a bit bigger (he remembered telling Ash his ceiling was WAY too low), but there was nothing he could do about that now.

"I'm fine now... Erm...What was your name again? Sean or something? I think I'm stuck between the toilet and the wall again, I told Ash his house it too small but hey he's a Raichu and a chu usually does what it's used to."

Sean was about to answer when he felt oddly hot. He started to pull his jacket off as deep blue fur and small red dots grew on his back along with tan fur on his front. Slowly his eyes became a deep green and he grew a little taller, wondering how Nathan was able to walk around the place as well. Being six feet tall wasn't easy, but it had been a long time since he last saw Misty and he wanted to make sure that Ash was the perfect soulmate for her. He and Serene had been dating for a while, and he wanted Misty to be as happy with Ash as he and Serene were together. As new memories started to take form in his mind, his body became more bulked up with muscle and fat, taking on a chubby well-fed look. His arms and legs shrunk and claws slowly erupted from his hands._Boy, Serene sure is a good cook. Heh, I remember when I use to be a skinny little Quilava and then she filled me out nicely._ He though to himself as his clothes disintegrated save for his baseball cap. "I know how you feel. Let me get you out, big guy!" Sean called as he waddled towards the door to get it open and pry Nathan loose.

"I unlocked the door, can you pull me out of here," Nathan asked. Being about seven feet tall meant he could hardly fit in any normal-sized houses, his own apartment was especially made for big and hefty Pokemon.

Sean smiled and helped his fellow chubby-cheeks up to his feet. "I know the feeling. My soon-to-be-wife wants a nice well-fed husband!" he laughed as he patted his gut.

Nathan sighed. "Lucky you, I have three Dragonite females wanting to marry me," he said with a roll of his eyes. "I told them I just wanted one wife and they started fighting each other! Not what I want for a wife, that's for sure." He took a few steps forward and promptly hit his head on the ceiling. "Oh man that happens to me way too often. I need to work on my flying too," he said, pointing to his wings, "They got snagged on a tree branch the other day, hurt like crazy!"

"Can't be as bad as accidentally setting the furniture on fire whenever you get excited," Sean said as they headed back downstairs. "Do you have any idea how expensive it is to get fireproof chairs? And on my salary? Oy, this economy…"

- - -

Tory's hair started to rapidly grow until it got to about waist length, and his chest started to feel tight as if it was pushing up against his shirt, which had been really loose when he got it on this morning. It burst open, revealing a pair of blue furry breasts. The fur spread over the rest of his, now her, body as a long purple tail sprouted from the bottom half of her body. Her eyes got smaller and turned purple as her ears moved to the top of her head, looking somewhat like horns. Her feet began to twist and change shape as she got them out of her shoes and socks. Her hands became three-fingered with balls on the end, and her feet became two-toed with a strange ball near the heel on the outside.

Mike, seeing what happened, quickly threw off his disguise and revealed himself as Mewtwo and flew to the female's side as her mind was flooded with information about both the current and former states of the world, among others. "Michael...", she said, holding her hand up to his face. Going by her voice, one could tell she was about the same age as Ash.

"Don't worry, Tori. Everything will be fine," Mewtwo told her as he stroked her long hair.

Tobi sat in the corner. His sixth sense had let up not long after Nathan had left. This wasn't unusual, as the Dragonite couldn't panic for too long. Tobi rubbed his head; his hair was turning a dark green though he didn't seem to notice. The center seemed to turn into a lighter blue as the back hairs stretched and stood up before merging together to form a large fin on his head. His hair then hardened into a helmet-like piece, the front stretching down to his nose. His arms thinned out and lengthened as two large blades tore through his clothing and reverted back to small spikes. The skin on his chest and arms took on the same dark green hue as his hair, while his lower body turned a pale white. His waistband tore to pieces as his hips bulged out. The tatters of his shirt were ripped to shreds as a red triangular horn grew from his chest and back. His feet scrunched up and became round. Despite his thin form his body muscle began to double as his mental capacity increased and he grew another two feet. The Anthro-Gallade looked around, feeling all the emotions in the room. His own mood turned to panic as he looked for Dawn.

Dawn looked around the room. She wasn't sure if she was confused or happy with the way things here going. Her long blue hair curled slightly as her bangs grew down to the center of her face. Her skin became the same blue as her hair except her face, which became pale. A long white gown replaced her clothing. Her body, arms, and legs became thin and almost frail. Also, her chest swelled as she matured, growing a foot. Just as her changes finished, Tobi found the Gardevoir. The Gallade embraced her happily. Neither of them seemed bothered as her skin took on a glow and a small bulge began to form on her lower abdomen.

"How are you? How's the baby? Are you hungry? Can't let the baby be hungry," the Gallade shot off rapidly. The Gardevoir giggled.

"I'm fine. I'm only a few months in, the baby's not going to be born for a while yet, silly." She gave him a small peck on the cheek.

Tracey was just finishing up a sketch he did of a female anthro Scyther. What he didn't notice was that his hands where turning a deep light greenish color and becoming more exoskeletal. His torso narrowed and a modest pair of curves appeared on his chest as his face lengthened. Her eyes became a soft cerulean blue with a clear happy persona. Bug wings grew out of her back and tore the rest of her shirt, and her body became more Scyther-like. Her hands still functioned with all five fingers with a blade on forearm, allowing her to continue drawing. The old new memories of her childhood with her father made her feel proud as she grew younger. "I hope my dad is alright. He's been feeling down all day," she muttered to herself as she continued to draw her self-portrait.

Donphan was wondering what it would be like to be like his daddy, not even noticing that he had now become an anthro Raichu. Slowly his dark grey and black skin faded away to be replaced with yellow fur. He slowly grew smaller in girth and more humanoid. A cute pair of Pichu ears appeared on the top of his head and his eyes became just like Ash's. A messy shock of orange hair appeared on his head and a cute little thunderbolt tail grew from his rear. He no longer recalled being a Donphan and soon put his finger in his mouth. His name was Ash Junior, the three year-old son of the lovely couple Ash and Misty Ketchum.

May's skin was turning blue as her hair began to fall out. Of course, just like everyone else's changes, she hadn't noticed. At the same time, Drew's favored Green hair was also falling from his head as well. As their skin started to match in color, their eyes both began to turn red. Their clothing hardened into shells that protected their bodies. Long Squirrel-like tails grew from their behinds. Their bodies started to reform until they were what you would consider the epitome of beauty...however, this would soon change as they began to glow. When the light faded away, they had gained a modest amount of weight, and now had fangs and feathers on their heads, their tails were also feathered, and they were also older, in their early twenties.

Again the light of evolution hit them. They ended up gaining tremendous weight, and you wouldn't know by looking at May that she was once the called most beautiful Morph in Hoenn. Much larger, their shells hid canons, but as much as they'd like you to think that's the only reason they were large, they had become quite overweight, even for their species. They were now much older as well. Despite the loss of their beauty they did indeed love each other dearly, and had high hopes for Rain, their young Wartortle daughter, who had yet to show any of the negative traits they did at that age.

Paul smirked as he watched the activity around him. If Ash became an older male Raichu, that meant he had less losers getting in his way. He barely noticed or cared that his Pokémon where all anthropomorphic as well, he still had their Pokéballs and they would do what he told them. Much like the other transformations, Paul didn't notice as his purple hair began to fall out and his ears became long and triangular. Turning black, they moved to the top of his head. His skin took on a light purple tint. It was when his face began to pull out that he noticed what was going on. Currently out of sight, the skin from his waist down and around his arms darkened until they were black. Two black orbs formed on his snout as his nose became flat like a pig's and another black orb formed on his chest. As he looked down, his attention was drawn to the rise under his shirt. Within a few moments his shirt burst open, revealing a new set of breasts. Paul was too stunned to panic as his pants where blown apart by her widening hips and new long curly tail. The female Grumpig morph stood in total shock for a few moments as her Pokémon surrounded her. "What happened!?!?" she screeched in confusion when she found her voice.

Her Electabuzz grinned, "I always wished youse become da' pig you are!" he said in an oddly Brooklyn accent.

Her Torterra smirked "I wished to have a female around..."

Her Ursaring laughed "And I was wishing you'd know what it was to never be powerful enough!"

Paul's eyes scanned her team of five very powerful male (And one female. Guess which one it was!) Pokémon all looking at her with glazed, lusty eyes. For the first time in a very long time, she knew what fear was.

Torterra and Ursaring grabbed her before she could bounce away and the two carried her away with the other four following. "Come on, boys! Lets get some much-needed tension relief!" Magmortar said as they left.

Paul screamed desperately for help. Nobody heard her.

Ritchie looked around the room at the morphs. He had resigned himself to the fact that there was no avoiding the changes going around and was just praying people wouldn't be getting him and Ash mixed up anymore. But you know what they say, be careful what you wish for. Ritchie of course was oblivious as his ears grew into long Raichu ears. His face pushed out into a muzzle. His body grew a coat of orange fur. Like Misty as his yellow electric sacs developed a powerful shock went through his body, disintegrating his clothing. With the clothes gone, attention could be drawn to the swelling on his chest as a set of modest breasts grew in. Likewise down below his male organs shifted into female counterparts. Her body took on a more feminine appearance as she grew a few feet taller, becoming the same size and apparent age as Ash.

"Are you okay, Aunty?" the ten year-old Pikachu asked his aunt. She had a weird look on her face. Regina shook her head and looked down at her twin brother's child.

"Everything's fine, Jean Luc," she assured him. She got to her feet and started looking for her boyfriend. Boy being the operative word, as Sparky was almost six years younger than her and still a Pikachu.

- - -

Delia sighed as she put more food out. From the sound of things all the Pokemon from the lab had invaded the living room. She just shook her head, not noticing the lighting bolt tail coming out from under her apron. As her face pulled out into a muzzle with yellow cheek sacs she went to the fridge. She knew Ash's favorite food and she knew she stocked up on some the last time she went to the store, so took some more out to feed the bottomless pit that was her son. As brown and yellow fur spread over her body, she bumped the fridge door with her hip to close it back up. Her legs grew a lot shorter as her feet and arms became covered in brown fur. She hummed as she started defrosting the meal. She did always like having company over. As brown fur with black stripes starting going down her back and the transformation nearly finished, she got one of the plates, heaped the steaming meal on it, and prepared to bring it out. She remembered that a Dragonite had come through the kitchen before. Poor thing, the house was way too small for him yet he still came over. As her hands became brown furry paws she brought the plate out into the living room, much to her son's delight.

- - -

Sceptile was looking around. It was a pretty joyous occasion (aside from Nathan and Sean getting stuck in places). He noticed that Max was acting...off...way off...too off...that kid was such a creepy fanboy. Deciding to find the boy's father to get rid of him, Sceptile ran down the hall away from Max. He wasn't paying a lot of attention to where he was going, so when he finally saw Norman he was moving so fast that he couldn't stop and collided with him.

That's when something strange happened. First sceptile vanished, and then a tail that almost looked like a full blown tree burst out of Norman's pants. Norman was at first a bit stunned at being run into but when he looked around there was no one there. He didn't even notice himself becoming leaner, and his skin turning a very nice shade of bright green. Sceptile's emotions and habits began to combine with Norman's memories. For Sceptile, he was in bliss, he didn't know where he was but he knew he was fine as the separate beings of Norman and Sceptile became one. Norman took on more of Sceptile's appearance, six orbs forming on his back which had gotten revealed when his shirt slipped off due to Norman becoming a lot skinnier. He also became taller and got a burst of energy. His feet and hands became green and his fingers and toes ended in claws, perfect for gripping trees, as the green scales finished covering his body. Norman stretched a bit, he felt like he had the perfect head rush.

Norman paused to think of why he was in such a rush. After a moment, he realized that he had forgotten to inform Ash of the meeting he, Leo, and Dante had planned. However, he shouldn't be running so quickly. It might make him lose a few points of badassery. Calmly, he pulled out his twig and put it back in his mouth before he walked back out to where the rest of the partygoers were.

- - -

"There you are," Regina said as she walked into her room. Sparky was sitting on the bed. "Why aren't you downstairs with the others?" she asked the 22 year-old Pikachu.

"I keep getting the feeling your mom doesn't like me," Sparky said. "She's been staring at me all night..."

"She's just a little angry that she was wrong about you," Regina said as she sat down beside him.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked, a bit confused.

"She told me that when a young man like you goes after a women my age, you're looking for 'a quick wham bam thank you ma'am!'" she explained. "I told her that we haven't slept with each other for the six months we've been going out, but she wouldn't believe me, and then you pretty much proved your virginity with how you responded to her experiment."

Regina was referring to a situation where Delia had gotten Regina and Sparky to watch a movie with her. She had planned out to show Regina there was one thing on his mind. The movie had a few very steamy scenes. Much to Delia's surprise when these scenes came on, Sparky had nearly turned orange and used his tail to cover his eyes.

"Of course, I'm going to take care of that tonight!" she said with an evil smirk as she threw the smaller Pikachu down on the bed. Raichu mating season had started, and she was not letting Ash be the only one to bring grandchildren into the world.

- - -

Nathan came back down with Sean, sporting a decent-sized bump on his head, "Well, time to fly, thanks for letting me stay for a bit Ash but like I said you're house is way too small"

"You sure about that Nathan? I mean, you haven't even had any wine yet," Ash asked.

Nathan waved a claw in a 'no thanks' gesture. "Never was a big wine drinker, never liked the stuff...sorry." Nathan smiled, then sighed. "I just need to get back, those three Dragonite females need one male to lower the boom and break their hearts. I will not accept a wife that'll tear my house apart out of jealousy." Nathan hesitated. "Of course, this is assuming there is nothing other than the meals present to have."

"Not that I can think of, sorry," Ash apologized.

Nathan nodded and spread his wings. "If you want to visit me, I'm in Goldenrod...most likely in the Game Corner. Now, I've gotta tell off those three females." They could almost swear they heard Nathan chuckle 'I always hit the jackpot' before he walked back into the cold and flew away.

"Ash," Norman said from behind Ash.

Ash turned around. "Oh, Norman. What's up?"

"We're going to have a meeting tonight, so don't go drinking too much," the Sceptile warned him.

Ash rolled his eyes. "I'm not a lightweight like that Sandslash, AJ."

Norman pulled his twig out of his mouth, crossed his arms and smirked. "Yeah, well, I was just making sure you haven't gone soft in your away time."

Max was thinking about how cool his dad was. The nine year-old always did want to be just like him. As he thought this a thick green tail burst from his pants as he started to shrink. His eyes turned yellow around the whites as his glasses started to readjust themselves due to his ears disappearing, adapting to his new head shape. Green scales started traveling down his body as his fingers got a bit shorter. His clothes also began falling off, revealing his new dark green on bright green body. Max's hands and feet turned green as his fingers and toes gained bubble-shaped tips as he looked up to his Sceptile father. Norman smiled at his son and patted him on the head, "Heh. You're full of energy today, Max."

The Treecko nodded. "I don't know why, but I feel like I could take on the world tonight."

Ash walked back into the room and shot Norman a look before heading out the door. Norman sighed. "Well, I've got to go for a bit; you behave for your mother and the others, okay?"

"Alright, dad," Max said, trying not to sound suspicious.

When Norman entered the secret meeting room—really just Ash's basement--Michael, Dante, Leo, and Ash were seated around a coffee table, upon which sat a large black book. The book kept all the minutes from every meeting as well as the rules and regulations in the brotherhood. Which brotherhood, you ask? The Brotherhood of Badass, of course!

"So. Now that we're all here..." Ash started.

"Actually..." Norman interrupted. "Someone's not here yet."

Ash raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

"We initiated Boruda before the party," Dante informed Ash.

"Without telling me!?" Ash demanded.

"I uh... guess we forgot," Norman said with a laugh. Both Ash and Mike facefaulted.

Suddenly the door burst open. "I- I'm here!" The Grottle said as he came in and shut the door.

"You're late, something wrong?" Leo asked.

"Just... just a bit nervous," Boruda replied. "And my ass still stings from the branding."

"There was nobody out there, right?" Mike asked "After all this is a Secret Brotherhood, so nobody's supposed to know about it."

"Yeah, I checked, I couldn't find anyone," Boruda said confidently.

"Okay, first order of business... Ash, did you find any other potential recruits during your year of intense training in Sinnoh?", Norman asked.

Ash told the others in detail about his adventures in Sinnoh, as well as his meetings with Darkrai, Giratina, and even Arceus.

"You-you met Arceus?" Dante asked in awe.

Ash nodded. "He was a bit pissed at first, but a little trip into the past and everything was fine. (Michael remained silent, thinking better of telling the others that Arceus had just had an extremely bad day that time.) I made them honorary members, but I couldn't get close enough to Dialga and Palkia to mark them."

"Cool," said Leo.

"Okay...So…the next order of business...what about Nathan?" Ash asked.

"...AGAIN? Ash, why are you so intent on having him join?" Norman asked.

"How is he any less of a candidate, and I mean no offense by this, than Boruda?" Ash queried.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Boruda asked.

"He's lazy and overweight," Norman noted.

"He only weighs two more pounds than any other Dragonite you could name," Ash retorted.

"He's also an otherwise forgettable and interchangeable friend of the day," Norman countered.

"Um…well…" Ash struggled to find a counter to that argument.

"....Is everything going to be alright?" Boruda asked.

"Don't worry about it," Leo said with a laugh.

"Yeah, they go through this argument every meeting," Dante nodded.

"All four hundred and twenty meetings we've had since he met Nathan," Michael agreed.

"You kept count?" Boruda asked, astonished.

"The meeting number is listed in the book," Mike pointed out.

"Oh," Boruda said Mareepishly.

"Hey! I have an idea. What would you say about someone who could defeat three raging females upset at him for turning them down?" Ash asked.

"That he'd be a perfect candidate for the Brotherhood, why?" Norman asked.

"Well, Nathan went to settle that now. How about...if he manages to win, we accept him, if not, then I drop this topic for good?" Ash asked.

"Hey, wait a minute...we're rewarding him for beating up a female?" Dante questioned this logic.

"For defending himself against three raging females," Leo pointed out.

"That a problem?" Ash said more than asked, cracking his knuckles.

"Yes," Dante said, cracking his larger clawed knuckles and looming over Ash with his wings spread and tail flame burning behind him.

The Raichu and the Charizard stared down each other, until the Grotle's eyes gleamed, "Say, anyone care to bet on whether he'll win or not?"

"Pass," Leo said, not caring for gambling.

"Same here," Dante agreed, long having given up his gambling habit, thanks to Charla nagging him about it.

"Okay, I'll take the bet. I say he'll win," Michael noted.

"Alright. How much are we betting here?" Boruda asked.

"20,000 poke," Mike stated.

"Fine with me," Boruda grinned.

"Are you sure about this?" Leo asked Michael.

"Trust me., I'm teaching him a lesson," Mike insisted with a grin. He cleared his throat, "And for the next order of business..." Mike started, using his psychic powers to open the door. Jean Luc, Sammy, and Max tumbled into the room, much to the surprise of their parents.

"Hi," Sammy said cheerfully.

"Uh... Dad, I...I can explain," Max stammered.

Jean Luc just sat there, his ears drooping. _I should have known not to spy on them when Uncle Michael was with them._

"How long were you three spying on us?" Ash asked.

"Huh?" Max asked, surprised that he'd ask that.

"How long?" Ash repeated.

"Umm... the whole time. We ducked behind the corner when Mr. Boruda was coming," Jean Luc admitted.

"How'd you manage to keep Boruda from noticing the light from Sammy's Tail?" Dante asked, intrigued by the children's subterfuge.

"I put a block in front of my tail, papa," Sammy said.

"Are you mad at us, Dad?" Jean Luc asked.

"No, no we're not. I just needed some proof that you were ready to join us and I think this qualifies," Ash said, lifting his eldest son up.

"Really? What about the others?" Jean Luc asked, "I mean, Max helped me plan out the whole thing. And Sammy figured out the block thing by himself."

"I think they did a fine job. What about you Norman, Dante? I mean they're your kids after all," Ash asked.

Dante picked up his adopted child, "It's a great idea. Though it might not be best to let you sit in on all of our meetings. Your moms might get suspicious."

Norman nodded. "Caroline would surely notice if Max was missing so late at night. But the fact that you managed to fool us and not get caught—were it not for Michael, anyway--is amazing. Especially with Ash's big ears." Ash opted to ignore Norman's jab.

There was a sudden crash as the door opened again, startling everyone except Michael. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything fellas." It was Nathan, with a few bruises but not looking too worse for wear. At the dead silence, his face drooped and he said, "Oh, I guess I am, I'll come back later." He turned to leave.

"Hey! Nathan, get back in here," Leo called out.

Nathan came back in, "You're doing this on purpose aren't you, making a Dragonite run around after a fight. Well in all honesty's sake, I went through the fight easier than I thought, using one female's attack to take out one of the other's works wonders, still got dinged up though"

Ash grinned at Norman. "Guess that settles that."

Norman sighed. "Yeah, a deal's a deal."

Nathan scratched his head in puzzlement as he noticed a very pained expression coming from Boruda. "Speaking of deals," Michael said with a smirk.

Boruda sighed and handed the Mewtwo his money. "Well, I've learned a lesson today."

"Oh?" Leo asked.

"Yeah, never bet with Michael," Boruda said.

Michael cackled evilly. "When will you fools learn never to gamble with a Psychic?"

"Hmm, maybe that's why I keep losing at the Game Corner…all the dealers are Psychics! How did I not notice that before now?" Nathan wondered.

"Anyway, congratulations Nathan," Ash said, shaking Nathan's hand, "You're now officially a member of the Brotherhood of Badass."

Nathan blinked. "I'm guessing that's a good thing then?"

"Yeah, I've been trying to get you in for quite a while now," Ash said.

"For reasons none of us understand," Norman grumbled.

"You'll have to get the brand, though. Norman and Dante get to apply it to the new guys," Leo said with a nod.

Boruda winced and rubbed his ass, which had been branded with the group's symbol. "Of course it hurt, Boruda, we're grass types, so we've really got no choice but to bear the pain," Norman chided.

Nathan looked skyward, "I've never gotten a brand before...how does that work?" He looked at Dante.

"Norman sticks an iron in my fire breath then applies it somewhere on your body. It'll probably be somewhere inconspicuous, like part of your outer wing. It can't be very big, or else our wives would find out about them," Dante remarked.

"That sounds rather painful," Nathan said anxiously.

"Oh, it is," Dante said with a malevolent cackle. Boruda whimpered, remembering how much his branding had hurt.

Nathan shrugged. "Well, if that's the way it is, okay. I had to hold one of those crazy females in front of me while taking a Hyper Beam attack, I doubt a little brand will hurt that much."

"Oh, we'll see about that…" Norman said maliciously. He and Dante laughed evilly.

Max looked a bit anxious. "Daddy, am I going to have to get it done that way too?"

Norman nodded. "I'm afraid so, son, but pain is inevitable in life and a real badass has to take it without flinching." He picked up a very large iron with a spiky and quite-painful looking mark on the end. Dante obligingly breathed on it until the mark turned white hot and sizzled the air. "Now, hold still, this won't hurt…for long."

Shortly thereafter, accompanied by much screaming and wailing, the kids and Nathan joined the Brotherhood.

---------

Some time later…

Michael and his wife were leaving the party. Despite it all, he had to admit everything turned out for the better. "Michael, honey?" Tori interrupted his thoughts.

"Yes dear?" Michael said.

"...Something happened today, didn't it?" Tori asked.

Michael decided to play dumb a bit. "A lot happened today. Could you be more specific?"

She stopped moving and crossed her arms. "Everyone... they changed today, didn't they? Myself included."

Michael paused. _How could she have...?_

"...Michael, we're married psychics. Our minds are linked, remember?" she said.

"I didn't think it'd be so thorough, though..." Michael grunted. "Yes, yes, it did."

"...I was going to die, wasn't I?" she asked.

"...Yes, you were. But it seems that to grant both of our wishes, the legendaries deemed that they had to get rid of your disease," Michael said.

She blinked. "Both of...what was your wish, dear?"

"I... I was tired of being alone," Michael admitted, "As they say, one is the loneliest number."

"What about zero?" she asked.

"I don't know, I'm not the guy who comes up with these things," he said.

She gave him a kiss. "...Well, it looks like neither of us has to worry about that again. Although...they say that two is the loneliest number after one."

"How's that?" he asked, completely failing to comprehend her insinuation.

She rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's go home," she said.

_Home..._ Michael thought as they walked away. _I have... a home._

Tori nodded. "Yeah, our home... Before this all happened, it was my parents, but thanks to the change in reality, they've already 'ascended."

Ascension. A stage of life for the now existing race of Mewtwo. When Mewtwo reached a certain age, they decided to leave their old life behind them and live high in the sky, hence the name. There, they joined up with colonies of Mews and eventually became Mews of a larger size. Because of his status as the original Mewtwo and direct offspring of Mew Prime, Michael and his wife would probably not go through this rite of passage.

At least, not yet…

---------

"So Nathan how do you like my Serene's cooking?" Sean asked, patting the Dragonite on the back.

Nathan was stuffing his fat face. "Delicious, though usually I try not to overdo it, flight burns off a lot of calories...if I remember correctly."

Sean just patted the Dragonite's belly and grinned. "Well, it's always good not to eat too much, but if your family's home you might need all the food you can get unless you want a ride in our car?" he asked.

Nathan shook his head, "I fly everywhere, I can go anywhere like that too"

"Ah, that's neat. For me, I have everything I need as long as I am with Serene. Between you and me she is expecting our son soon," he said.

Nathan, now an official member of the Brotherhood decided to keep up with the secret society's image by constantly training in his spare time. Unfortunately he hasn't found a wife who lives up to his standards. Not yet, anyway.

- - -

"So guys, what do you think? Was she good enough to keep, or do we release her into the wild?" Torterra, self-named Tortimer, asked as they looked at the battered Paul, now named Pauline or 'Stupid Pig Bitch Whore.'

"I say we let her go in the deep forest," Paul's former Weavile, Scrape, spoke up with an evil smile, licking his long bladelike claws, "And then we go hunting."

"I say we keep'r," Brian the Electabuzz said. "She might get better after some intense 'training.'" He laughed at his own joke

"If we all attack her at once she should toughen up in no time," Morty the Magmortar mocked.

"Let's give her a month and see" Pedro the Honchcrow spoke up.

Pauline just stared blankly at nothing, so thoroughly traumatized and broken by what her Pokemon had done to her that she didn't really care if she lived or died any longer. Her life stretched out before her, and it promised to be very unpleasant.

- - -

Gary returned to his office, coincidentally not that far from Ash's home. After Ash had beaten him that last time, he had given up being a fighter for the most part and had decided to become a psychiatrist, because Dark types, much like Psychic Types, know the depth of the mind better than anyone.

"Carrie... who's my first client for today?" Gary asked coldly.

"A last minute client," said the voice on the other side of the speaker, clearly used to her employer's demeanor, "He seems to be insane and keeps on claiming that morphs weren't here before last night."

"Okay, send him in."

- - -

"So are you two going back to Sinnoh?" Delia asked Dawn as she helped pack their stuff into a suitcase.

"Well, actually.... there's a house not to far away for sail, and I know Tobias likes this area. I was thinking maybe we'd move out here," Dawn told Delia a little excitedly.

"Well, we'd be glad to have you out here. You know Dawn, your mother and I used to be friends," Delia said.

"Really? She never mentioned that," Dawn said.

Delia frowned. "Oh, she didn't, did she?"

As the two chatted about the possibilities of the future, elsewhere....

"Hey, Sean we need our own place," Serene said out of the blue.

"But isn't living with my mom fine? Oh wait, we have a baby on the way," he said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I don't want our son to be raised in a city with sluts," she said.

Sean nodded. "Oh you mean Misty's Sisters. Yeah they are sluts. We better find a new home fast. No way is our son going to end up being in that Lopunny's harem."

- - -

Tobias leapt to the next tree branch, grabbing the branch with his elbow blade and swinging onto it. He already knew what dawn was thinking, one of the many advantages of being a psychic couple was there where few secrets between them. Tobias could not be happier in his life then he was right then. He was never a fan of big cities so this small country town was a perfect place to live. He had the world's most beautiful wife, who at the moment shined more then ever--and that was without her being shiny! Their children where already giving off minute psychic emanations, informing him that they would be very powerful, and, if they were anything like their mother, very attractive too.

A psychic message told him it was time to turn around, Dawn was ready to go look at that house. He took off from the branch and started hopping across rooftops. It was time to see if he could break his last record of fifteen seconds.

- - -

Sparky stirred in his sleep. He could tell three things without opening his eyes. One was that he was not in the guest room bed. The second was that he wasn't alone in bed. And the third was that he wasn't a virgin anymore. Sparky opened his eyes to stare into two wide brown orbs. "Morning, honey."

Regina giggled at the look on his face. "It wasn't a dream, we did it last night."

"Was I... Did I... Was it good for you too?" he asked, not sure what to say.

"You were great, for a beginner, but skill comes with time, and we've got loads of that!" Regina smiled. "Unless now that you got some tail you're gonna run"

"I wouldn't leave you for anything!" Sparky insisted.

"Really? Not for anything?" Regina asked.

"I would stay with you even if I found out you planned this so that the first time we did it, you would get pregnant!" Sparky stared at her. She stared back at him, smiling like a Chesire Meowth. "...Wait, you planned it so that the first time we did it you would get pregnant!?!?" Regina nodded, grinning. "You evil bitch. And are you...?" he asked.

"Well, there's no way to physically know yet. But...we had sex, during mating season, while I was in heat. Throw in my women's intuition telling me all systems are go and I think it's pretty much a given," she said as she began to mover her head under the covers "So daddy, ready for another round?"

One thought went through Sparky's head as Regina began. _I am the luckiest unlucky mon ever_

- - -

"Mom! Take a look at this cool mark I got!" Sammy said proudly.

Charla bent down and looked at the mark that was on her son. She smiled, proud to see her hatchling growing up to be in the Badass group that her husband and his friends foolishly thought their wives knew nothing about. "It's lovely Sammy. Now go wash up dinner will be ready soon," she announced.

"Okay Momma!" Sammy said, smiling as he ran off. Dante slowly came marching into the room, dead tired.

"So hon, how was work?" she asked.

"Ugh, exhausting. There's really got to be a better use for my talents than smashing rocks with my head," Dante complained.

Charla smiled sweetly. "At least you have an appropriately hard head, dear. Speaking of which, I can see that you forgot to pick up the milk."

Dante blinked. "What? Oh, dammit all…fine, I'll be back." With a weary sigh, he stomped away. Charla just shook her head. Her husband might be badass, but he wasn't the brightest, that was for sure.

- - -

Max, Caroline and Norman had thanked Dante for dropping them off at Petalburg. Norman was an important man here, basically the town's protector and hero. He got the biggest house in town as a result. It also had a large training dojo where Norman taught other Morphs and even a few lucky humans self-defense, and a large garden full of Pokémon and trees to climb in.

"That was a good party, wasn't it dear?" Caroline, now a beautiful Sceptile female, asked.

"Yeah. I feel like I need a good rest though. I'd have liked a bit more wine..." Norman commented.

"Honey, it's drinking as much as you did that made you lose to Nathan," Caroline said.

"No. It was my arrogance that cost me. He wouldn't have fought with me if I hadn't had said what I did," Norman said.

"What did you say, Dad?" Max asked confused.

"Umm... It doesn't matter," Norman said, changing the subject, so his wife didn't find out about the Brotherhood, which unknown to him she already knew about anyway. "Max, you seem to be getting stronger lately."

Max nodded eagerly. "Yeah! I am! Do you think I'll evolve soon, Dad?"

"Why the hurry to evolve? You should take what you've got now and enjoy it, Max," Norman said.

"But I want to be awesome like you, dad!" Max insisted.

"Don't worry. I'm positive that you will be one day, son. After all, you're my boy," Norman said, shifting his twig around in his mouth, crossing his arms in his usual pose. "Just promise me you'll take your time. If you evolve too fast, you might miss out on a few things that could make you even more badass."

"Okay, dad. I promise," Max tried to imitate his father's pose, causing Norman to smile because it only made him look more nerdy than he already was - given a bit of time, and training from his dear old dad, he could probably pull it off. Yes. Max would one day be as badass as he. Maybe even more so.

- - -

"Ash," Misty said sweetly, after Ash had cleaned out all evidence of the recent meeting and branding.

"Um... Yes, dear?" Ash asked his lovely wife.

"You know... it's been a while since you've been home, and I've been very lonely..."

Ash sighed. He felt it too, the same feeling that came up every year at about this time... Raichu mating season, "Yeah, I think I get where you're going with this...I want more children as well dear, but there's one thing I'd like to do first, okay?"

"No. You can always go visit him later," Misty insisted.

"I-- I guess so..." Ash stammered. Misty always had this effect on him.

And then they had lots of sex, though that was a given.

- - -

Tracey was busy cooking her father a meal to butter him up and allow her to go see her boyfriend Heracles, a Heracross. "This dinner is delicious, my daughter. Is there a reason you put so much work into this meal?" Zolo said, not fooled by his daughter.

"Well, umm…I wanted to go see Heracles before I went to go back to school," she said after much hemming and hawing..

He sighed, giving in. "Alright my daughter, but come back before ten or else I will slice him to ribbons," Zolo warned.

"Thank you daddy!" Tracey said as she gave him a kiss and headed off to see Heracles.

"Kids these days. Perhaps I should just threaten her boyfriend a bit when he arrives," he chuckled darkly.

Zolo later found out what a hollow threat that was when he met Heracles. He was a very buff Heracross that towered over him by at least two feet. The perfect sort of guy for his beloved daughter.

- - -

Betty looked around her house. On the right she had Bruiser the Primeape that Ash had met on their journey through Kanto, May's Blaziken friend Lucifer, a Marshstomp she met in Hoenn named Magnus, and her Croagunk, Steve. Yes, she truly had the finest harem of willing males in the Kanto region, likely the world... Plus, apparently it wasn't even over yet.

"Well boys, you know I love you all, and I know you all love me a lot, but today I'm going to introduce you to your new brother." Betty stepped aside to reveal a Glaceon. He was obviously in his late teens, by far the youngest one in the group. "Say hello to Zero."

"Isn't that May's adopted son?" Lucifer asked in confusion.

"Yup, he just turned eighteen. He's old enough to know better." She licked the inside of the Glaceon's ear, causing his face to turn purple. "Young enough to do it over and over and over and over and over again. I'm going to take him to my room and break him in. Bruiser, you can join us tonight. The rest of you can get started with your chores." She led the Glaceon in the back with the Primape.

"Heh, she's really done it this time," Lucifer said with a grin.

"What do you mean by that?" Magnus asked.

"Well, come mating season, she's gonna find out that Zero there is completely compatible with her egg group." They all laughed as they went to their chores.

- - -

"Rain, Drew, Breakfast is ready" May called from the kitchen. Drew and Rain cringed a bit. May was not particularly good at cooking, which is why Drew typically made the food whenever it came up. May came into the room carrying hot dogs. "Well, I hope I did good this time, all I did was warm them up."

Drew took a bite. "Um you didn't warm them up enough dear...they're still cold," Drew said slowly.

"Well, excuse me for trying to cook!" May snapped haughtily.

Rain winced. It was now or never, and would probably make a good distraction. "Hey mom and dad guess what?" Rain withdrew an arm into her shell and pulled out what looked like a fancy letter with a gold plated seal on it. "I got invited to model at the Wallace pageant on Cinnabar Island. Only the best looking get to perform for Wallace!"

"That's great, dear!" May and Drew exclaimed in almost perfect stereo. Then May went off on all the pageants she'd been in while Drew rolled his eyes and listened to his wife ramble. He'd heard these stories a million times and wasn't about to interrupt her again.

When the day of the pageant rolled around, Rain's parents sat up in the front row as their daughter modeled for a huge audience, remembering years past when they were the ones up on the stage getting awards and lots of money. Rain would go on to be one of the most popular models in the world.

- - -

Ash, Jean Luc and Junior stood in front of a gravestone with 'Raymond Ketchum, Beloved father and grandfather and husband,' written on it. Ash put a bouquet of flowers under the symbol engraved onto the stone, the same symbol he now used as the sign of his brotherhood, the same symbol that he had behind his ear.

Ash had started the Brotherhood in memory of his father, the man who had died trying to save the town by bringing peace (temporarily) between the legendary birds. Ash's mind flooded back to fond memories of training with his father, fighting and laughing, learning how to carry on the fighting style set down by their forefather Rajang, as his father Raiki had with him.

"I promised you dad... I promised that I would keep Pallet safe for you," Ash said as a tear fell from his face. He looked at Jean Luc, who nursed the mark behind his own ear. Ash couldn't be prouder when his son had requested the traditional branding, with only a groan of mild discomfort.

"Dad?" Jean Luc said without lifting his eyes, "Do you think that grandpa would be proud of us?" Junior looked up, sucking on a paw, his left ear bent down as he gave Ash a curious look.

Ash smiled. "Jean, Junior, if your grandfather were here, he could never be prouder of you than I am now. Remember something, boys. Warriors' blood runs through our veins. Our family has been fighters since as far as we can tell. But you must _**never**_ fight without a cause. Being a Ketchum is a big responsibility," He grabbed Junior in one arm. "But enough right now, your mother will be waiting."

"To have more sex with you?" Jean Luc asked.

"Yes Jean Luc, to have more sex with me," Ash said.

They headed home, where Ash indeed got to have more sex. It was fun.

---

_On Mt. Coronet…_

"Hmm. I think you did a superb job granting this wish, my child. Outstanding, especially since it was your first time," Arceus said to Mewn as they watched events unfold below them. "As a reward, you may choose any male—or female—you choose to be your mate. Do you have a pick in mind?"

"I do, Father," said Mewn. She told him her choice.

Arceus was surprised. "You are certain that is who you want?" Mewn nodded. "Funny…even I don't know how he attracts so many admirers. Heatran! Come here, please…I have a twenty-eighth wife for you to wed!"

---

The end


	26. Charmed

Charmed

Disclaimer: We own none of the characters in this story.

Writer's Note: This story was written by a team effort of me, Tazkol, VulpixTrainer, and Ri2. See how many references to other stories in the Chronicles you can find!

---

We join our heroes once more on the road to adventure!

"I think we're lost," Dawn said.

"No we're not!" Ash said stubbornly, causing the Pikachu on his shoulder and everyone else in their group to roll their eyes in exasperation.

Misty huffed and put her hands on her hips. "Of course we are, we've been by this spot a gazillion times. Doesn't it look familiar to you?"

"No!" Ash said firmly, not bothering to look around.

Misty's eye twitched. "Not even the tree we deliberately marked to make sure we'd know that we'd come this way before?"

Ash's resolve slipped. "Um, uh…" He tried not to look at the marked tree. "Somebody else probably marked it. We can't be the only people who've come this way before!"

"Really?" said Tracey, frowning at the marking on the tree. "How odd, then, that they'd make the exact same marking I did. Namely, a wood carving of Professor Oak in profile! Quite a coincidence, wouldn't you think?" He glared at Ash.

Ash's eyes shifted back and forth nervously. "Um, Yeah... Weird, huh? Eheheheh." The others glared at him. He grinned weakly and looked down. "Yeah. I'll shut up now."

"Ash might be right, actually," Brock commented, low to the ground and examining impressions in the dirt. "Look at all these footprints. It looks as if a huge group of people came through here not too long ago! Maybe if we follow them, we can find a way out of this forest and get back on track to the next town."

"Um, Brock, I think those are our footprints," May said.

"Yeah, the ones we made by walking across this same path in circles half a dozen times," Dawn added.

"Oh," Brock said, slumping. Pikachu giggled on Ash's shoulder.

Max sighed and crossed his arms. "This would never have happened if a certain somebody hadn't sat on my Pokénav."

"Pi Pikachu," Pikachu agreed, glancing at May and cursing her and that huge fanny pack she insisted on wearing.

"It was an accident!" May protested. "How was I supposed to know you put it there?! You should have left it somewhere safer!"

"And you should have looked before you sat to make sure there wasn't anything easily crushable for you to sit on!" Max shot back. The two siblings began to squabble, and Ash and Misty soon began bickering as well about some incredibly trivial matter, leaving Brock, Tracey, and Dawn to sigh and wonder what had made them think it would be a bright idea for all of them to go traveling together on this new journey.

- - -

It had seemed like a good idea at the time. After Ash had (not unexpectedly, sad to say) lost the Sinnoh League, he had returned to Pallet Town to mope a bit. Dawn, having lost the Sinnoh Grand Festival, decided to come with him to see what the Pokémon Contests in Kanto were like.

Ash's spirits had been raised when Professor Oak told Ash of another new region he could go to, and he had gotten the brilliant idea (amazingly) of calling up his other friends and asking them if they'd like to come with him, some sort of 'all-star' journey.

Though nobody knew what the hell he was talking about, they decided it wouldn't be such a bad idea to travel together once more and get reacquainted with one another, since it had been a long time for many of them since they had last gone on a real journey together. Everyone found a good reason to come along. Dawn came because she found the Kanto contests less exciting than she had hoped and wanted to see if the ones in the new region would be any better.

May, who had (not unexpectedly) lost in the Johto Grand Festival decided to come for essentially the same reason. Tracey came because he would get to sketch all sorts of cool new Pokémon, and also because Professor Oak had decided it was about time his assistant got back out in the field again instead of hanging around the lab all day.

Max, who had only a few months ago become a real Pokémon trainer, decided to rejoin the group to get more experience and also keep an eye on his sister. Brock had come because he knew somebody needed to feed all those mouths, and also because he was hoping he might find the most elusive specimen of all in the new land: a woman who would actually fall in love with him.

And as for Misty... Well, it was clear to everyone, or soon became clear, why she was _really_ coming, although she said it was just to get away from her sisters for a while and let them gain experience running the gym for a change. It didn't take long for those only passingly familiar with Misty, namely May, Max, and Dawn, to realize she was deeply in love with Ash, and the cap-wearing trainer was totally oblivious to her affections, although due to his somewhat increased maturity there were some signs he might return the feelings. but neither Ash and Misty seemed to be aware of those signs, sad to say. It was all rather frustrating, and had helped the romantic May and Dawn better bond with Tracey, who claimed that he'd been trying to get the two to pair up for ages with no success.

If the thickening sexual tension between Ash and Misty weren't bad enough, Team Rocket had (not unexpectedly) followed them to the new region, and, as usual, had written a new motto to celebrate the occasion. And to top it all off, now they were totally lost. Could the day get any worse?

Of course it did. It started to rain.

"Great, just our luck," Dawn muttered.

"Hey... I didn't notice THAT before!" Max said, pointing out something to the side.

A large square brick cube-shaped building, featureless on all sides save for the front, was in front of them. It had a striped green awning over the door and a glass window. Beside the plain green door was the display window, oddly dark and hard to see through with weird mystical signs and colorful pixie cut-outs hanging from the inside, with a banner proudly proclaiming 'SALE, ALL CHARM ITEMS 50% OFF'. "Magic Shop of Wonders" was written over the awning in big red letters.

"Well, it's probably dry in there, so let's go!", Ash said merrily.

"It doesn't seem the least bit odd to you that we never noticed this place before now?" Tracey asked skeptically. "Don't you think it could be a Team Rocket trap? This seems like the sort of scam they'd pull."

"Who cares, it's probably nice and dry in there!" Brock said, running for the door.

"Plus, you know we'll just beat them up and send them blasting off anyway," Dawn pointed out.

"And aside from that, I really don't want to get wet!" May yelled, running for the door.

"Me either!" Max yelled, chasing after his sister.

Misty glanced at Tracey, who shrugged and ran after the others, yelling something about not wanting his drawing supplies to get wet. She rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath about annoying hydrophobic traveling companions, then followed the others into the store at her own pace. She wasn't afraid of a little rain, seeing as how she was a Water-type trainer. A Bell rung as she opened the door and went inside.

She joined the rest of the group in looking around in amazement at the shop's interior once she was inside. It seemed MUCH larger indoors than it had from outside. It was two stories tall, with a balcony on the second floor overlooking the middle of the shop. The center of the shop was a beautiful traditional Japanese rock garden, lit by a skylight, even though there had been no visible skylight from the outside.

Scattered around both floors of the shop were tables and display cases, as well as racks with costumes on them. Such things included a pair of his and hers' matching Charizard costumes, bottled water labeled "Squirtle Water", a set of what closely resembled the Shells of a small Blastoise family (two parents and a Squirtle child), various crystals and statues, necklaces, and other charms and knickknacks.

"Wow!" said Ash.

"Neat!" said Max.

"It's an architectural impossibility!" said a stunned Tracey.

"It looks just like my dad's attic!" said Brock.

"Hello? May I help you?" A voice said from right beside the trainers.

"GAH!" The trainers all jumped, for they had not heard anyone sneaking up on them.

"PIKA!" Pikachu yelled, accidentally electrifying his friends due to all of them being wet from the rain outside. He laughed and scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

They mysterious voice chuckled. "Oh my, I must apologize my friends, I did not mean to cause you any alarm." Somehow, the group doubted this. They got up, brushed themselves off, and turned to see an old Asian-looking man in golden robes with a Ninetails-motif standing innocently next to a table nearby, although they were certain he had not been there a second ago. He wore a peaked cap on his head and had a Fu Manchu-style moustache, with his hair braided in a long queue going down his back. He bowed respectfully to them. Tracey got the weird feeling that he had seen this man in a movie somewhere. "My name is Mr. Kyube, and I am the proprietor of this shop. Welcome to my store. May I inquire as to the names of my newest customers?"

"Um, actually, we just came in to get out of the rain," Ash said quickly. "We didn't plan on buying anything."

Mr. Kyube raised an eyebrow. "You don't say?" He looked out the window, and the others turned to see what caught his eye. They grimaced when they saw that what had started out as a simple rainstorm had quickly turned into a torrential downpour. "Well, it doesn't look as if the rain will be letting up anytime soon. There's no harm in poking about, is there? You never know," he added, grinning and showing oddly pointed canines. "You just might find something you've always been looking for, without even knowing it. That is the nature of this place."

"Does anyone else feel like we've just walked into a horror movie?" May whispered weakly to the others.

"No," said Max.

"Yes," Tracey said anxiously. "The kind where the group splits up to look around and gets horribly killed one by one by the horrors lurking in the strange, no doubt haunted building!"

"Oh come on, that never happens in real life," Brock said dismissively. "I think."

"So, since it seems like we'll be getting to know each other fairly well over the next few hours…what were your names again?" Mr. Kyube asked politely.

Although they were somewhat uneasy and doubtful about this, Ash went first. (Naturally.) "I'm Ash from Pallet Town!"

"Pika Pikachu!" Pikachu chimed in.

"I'm Brock, former Gym leader of the Pewter Gym," Brock said.

"And I'm Misty, current Gym leader of the Cerulean Gym. I'm on vacation," Misty explained. "Sort of."

"I'm May, and this is my brother Max," May said next.

"Our dad's the Gym leader of Petalburg Gym!" Max said proudly.

"I'm Tracey, from the Orange Islands. I'm an aspiring Pokémon watcher, and I love to draw pictures and study under great scientists like Professor Oak," Tracey said. "Do you mind if I sketch a picture of you?"

"Yes," said Mr. Kyube.

"And I'm Dawn from Twinleaf Town. I'm new to the group," Dawn explained.

Mr. Kyube nodded. "It is a pleasure to meet you all, Ash, Pikachu, Brock, Misty, May, Max, Tracey, and Dawn. (Phew, I said that all in one breath!) I hope you will not find your wait here to be too strenuous. Please, look around; you may have full access to my shop and its wares while you are here. I specialize in selling trinkets with a certain…shall we say, _magical_ property? No one has ever left my store unsatisfied. Perhaps you will find something while you are here that will make the long wait for the storm to end bearable? Something that will, perhaps, grant your heart's desire?"

"Magic? Really? Awesome!" said an awestruck Max.

"Ooh! Ooh! Do you have anything that can make me irresistible to women?!" Brock asked hopefully, getting a little too far into Mr. Kyube's personal space.

"And something that can help me win gym battles?!" Ash asked, crowding next to Brock, and further decreasing the shopkeeper's personal space.

"And any enchanted art supplies that will allow me to truly capture the essence of whatever I draw, so that I can create truly great masterpieces?!" Tracey demanded, pushing his way towards Mr. Kyube beside Ash and Brock.

"Or something to help me win Pokémon Contests?!" May asked desperately, shoving in between Ash and Brock. Max rolled his eyes.

"Me too!" Dawn added, elbowing in beside her. Misty sighed and shook her head, though secretly she wanted to know if there was something here that would grant _her_ heart's desire…not very likely.

Mr. Kyube sweat dropped and backed away, feeling rather crowded. "Ah, perhaps. There are many things in my shop, and each possesses its own unique quality. Perhaps one of them will grant you what you desire…but you must find them for yourselves, I'm afraid. Such is the way of things."

This was not exactly what they wanted to hear, but since they had nothing better to do, the group went their separate ways, trying to see if there was anything in the shop that would give them satisfaction. Brock perused aisles full of bottled concoctions, searching for a love potion. Ash examined helmets and swords and strange pieces of armor, wondering whether donning any of them would make him a greater trainer. He also examined weird-looking Pokéballs, some of which were empty and could be used to capture any variety of Pokémon…and others with 'used' Pokémon in them, some with warning labels saying they were far too dangerous to ever be purchased. Misty had found a fascinating book about mystical creatures of the ocean and had sat down to page through it near a beautiful crystalline sculpture of a dolphin-like Pokémon she had never heard of before rising out of the sea in mid-leap. Max was also looking through the stacks of books, fascinated by the possibility of learning real magic from them. May examined many dresses and ribbons and other beautiful accoutrements, wondering if they would allow her to win more contests. Tracey was examining the art supplies, shelves full of strange-looking pads of paper, paint pots and canvases, and mysterious pencils coming in various different colors and made from a variety of different kinds of charcoal, each of which supposedly possessed a different magical property. There were also a number of magnificent paintings and drawings on display that he could not help but stare at for several minutes at a time. And Dawn…

Dawn had found herself looking at a table covered in many charms, the kind you might hang from a keychain or a wrist or around your neck, in all shapes and sizes. A placard informed her that all charms were fifty percent off at the moment, as part of a sale. "Do any of these catch your fancy?" Mr. Kyube asked from behind Dawn, causing her to scream and jump in the air.

"Will you stop doing that?!" she asked him angrily, once she had settled down and realized it was just the creepy shopkeeper.

"No," said Mr. Kyube. "I see you have noticed our fine selection of charms."

"What do they do?" Dawn asked, looking back at the table.

"Each embodies a specific principle or quality. Wearing that charm endows a person with that quality. Take, for instance, this fine piece here." Mr. Kyube picked up a charm in the shape of a yellow and white fox tail that looked as if it was almost on fire, dangling from a necklace. "This one is very special, and holds the power of love. There is an interesting story behind this charm. It's one of a pair, you see." He reached onto the table and picked up a second, identical fox tail. "It is said that if two lovers freely exchange these charms, the gods will smile on their union and grant them many years of happiness together." He grinned at Dawn. "Is there, perhaps, a certain someone who you wouldn't mind giving one of these to? Or, perhaps, receiving it from?"

Dawn shook her head. "No, there's nobody. However…" She paused, getting a strange idea. "There _are_ two people in our group who could use them."

"Oh?" asked Mr. Kyube, raising an eyebrow.

Dawn nodded. "Yeah. You know Ash and Misty? Well, they-"

"Are madly in love with each other but too dense to admit it?" Mr. Kyube said.

Dawn blinked. "Hey, yeah! How'd you guess?"

"Pretty obvious, I've seen it before a million times," he said with a shrug.

"Oh. Well, anyway, maybe if they exchanged these they'd finally get together. But they'd never think of buying those charms on their own. Unless…" A cunning grin grew on her face.

A similar grin formed on Mr. Kyube's face. "If you're thinking what I think you're thinking…that you might be able to play a little game of matchmaking with those two and trick them into exchanging those charms so that they may finally admit their feelings…"

"Something like that, yeah," Dawn said, still grinning.

Mr. Kyube laughed. "Hohoho, I approve! You are a very clever young woman!" He pressed the fox tail charms into her hands. "Here, take these. If you will buy both of these charms and promise to use them to bring those foolish youths together at long last, then you may have this charm for free!" He picked up another charm from the table.

"What's that one do?" Dawn asked.

"This is a lucky Boundary foot," Mr. Kyube explained, indicating the small brown rabbit foot hanging from a chain small enough to go around the wrist. "The wearer of this charm will have incredibly good fortune…and, if the wearer is a lovely young woman like yourself, extraordinary beauty as well." Dawn flushed at this. "So? Do you promise to purchase those charms and use them to bring love into this world?"

Dawn nodded eagerly. "Definitely!"

Mr. Kyube held out a hand. "That'll be fifteen Pokéyen, please." Dawn paid the man, and was happy to receive the lucky Bunneary foot as well. She quickly ran off to find Ash and Misty and begin her plot to bring them together at long last.

Misty was easy to find, she was still reading her book on mythical water creatures. "Hey, Misty, I have something for you," Dawn whispered, causing the red-headed girl to look up from her book.

"What is it?" Misty asked.

Dawn handed her the tail charm. "I saw Ash eyeing this earlier. It's a love charm, the kind of thing you would wear to increase his chances of happiness with someone he cares about. However, I could tell right away it's not the sort of thing he'd ever buy on his own, even if he did want it. But…if he got it as a present from someone he really cares for…" She beamed as Misty looked very interested. "He might _really_ appreciate it."

Misty blushed. "D-do you really th-think so?" she asked, surprising herself by how much she was stuttering and turning red.

"Well, sure," Dawn said with a wink. "It is a _love_ charm, after all. He wouldn't want it unless there was a certain someone he had his eye on…someone he's known for a very long time, and finally wants to tell her how he really feels about her."

"And…and you think that's me?" Misty asked feverishly, daring to hope this might be the case.

"Well, who else could it be? I'm not interested, and May's…well, May," Dawn said. She closed the hand Misty was holding the charm in. "Give it to him later. Like, tonight say. Trust me when I say he'll love it, and you'll both be the happier for it."

"I…" Misty flushed and looked at her feet. "G-gee, thanks Dawn. I'm…this is…"

"No need to thank me," Dawn said, smiling brightly as she patted her friend on the shoulder. "Just one girl passing advice to another. We ladies have to stick together, right? Especially in this outfit, even if there are as many of us as there are of them now!"

Misty rolled her eyes. "Definitely!" They both laughed, and then began discussing other things, female things, the sort of things this author knows little about and so must gloss over by skipping to the next scene.

While Dawn and Misty were talking about deep, intimate things, May, Max, Tracey and Brock were still wandering around the store and had by pure chance found the charm table at the same time. "Hey, what're these?" Max asked, looking at all the charms.

"These look like charms," Brock noted.

"They look pretty neat," commented Tracey.

"And they're half-price! What a bargain!" May gushed eagerly.

"Would you like to purchase any, then?" Mr. Kyube asked from behind them, causing them to scream and jump in the air.

"Why do you keep doing that!?" Brock yelled when his heart stopped beating a mile a minute.

"Yeah, it's scary as heck!" agreed Tracey, wiping sweat from his forehead.

"Force of habit. I see you have noticed my selection of charms. Do any of them take your fancy?" asked Mr. Kyube.

"Do they do anything?" Max asked wonderingly, looking at the charms.

"Each embodies a specific principle or quality. Wearing that charm endows a person with that quality," the old man explained.

"Are there any that'll make women fall in love with me?" Brock asked hopefully.

"Wellll…" Easily hiding the sly grin he would have made in private, Mr. Kyube picked up a keychain charm in the shape of a silvery crescent and handed it to Brock. "This one will make you irresistible to women."

"Ooh, finally!" Brock cried joyfully.

"Are—are there any that I might benefit from?" May asked timidly.

"Hmm." Mr. Kyube looked her up and down. "You look as if you could use more strength, and self-confidence. This one should do the trick." He picked up a bracelet charm in the shape of a small bell. "This one gives you the strength to press forward, and the confidence to go on unafraid even if you know you are facing certain death." He tapped the bell with a finger, causing it to ring. It sounded oddly loud and dull for such a small thing.

"Oh! Neat…I think…" May said uncertainly as she took the charm.

"What about me? Are there any I might like?!" Max asked eagerly.

"Well…" Mr. Kyube picked up a charm in the form of a small ball with lots of sparkles and reflective surfaces and stared at it for a moment. "…I've completely forgotten what this one symbolizes, other than it being something special. But it's shiny, so I suppose that's good for something."

"Cool!" Max said enthusiastically as the old man gave him the charm.

"Can any of the ones here make me a better artist?" Tracey asked in curiosity.

"Yes, but you already possess great talent. No, that is not the quality you are in great need of." Mr. Kyube picked up a small charm that looked like a sharp sickle blade, hanging from a small chain that could be attached to a backpack loop. "Here, this one increases…well…how do I put this in a way kids your age would understand? Ah, yes, it will make you 'cool'."

"Oh, I definitely could use one of those!" Tracey said ecstatically as he took the charm, careful not to cut himself on the sickle's sharp edge.

"I take it you would all like these charms, then? Good, that'll be fifty Pokéyen. Each."

They looked at him in horror. "I thought there was a sale going on!" cried an alarmed May.

"There is. Normally those'd be one hundred each. Very rare and expensive. Two hundred Pokéyen, please, that's fifty times four in case you didn't know." He extended a hand. Brock was about to protest, but hesitated when he saw the pleading looks on his companions' faces and remembered the crescent would make him irresistible to women. So he sighed, gave in, and pulled out his wallet, counting out the necessary bills. Mr. Kyube cackled inwardly, if his customers were stupid enough not to haggle or argue harder against his prices, then they deserved to be milked for all they were worth.

Meanwhile, Ash was currently posing in front of a mirror on the second floor, trying on an outfit he had found which caught his eye. "Do you think this Egyptian pharaoh costume looks good on me?" he asked Pikachu, who was sitting on a nearby trunk. Pikachu shrugged and made a 'mesh' sound.

"Hey, Ash, there you are," Dawn said, walking over. "I've been looking all over for you-"

"Dawn, does this Egyptian pharaoh costume look good on me?" Ash asked her.

"No," she said automatically, much to his disappointment. "Here, this is for you," she said, handing him the second tail charm. "Misty had her eye on it earlier. I think she'd like it a lot if you gave it to her later today. Like, say, tonight."

Ash blinked and looked down at the charm in his hand. "She'd like getting this? A lot?"

"A lot a lot," Dawn stressed.

"Okay, thanks Dawn, I'll give it to her later," Ash said, pocketing the charm. "Are you _sure_ I don't look good in this?"

"Maybe if you had fur. Or something," Dawn commented, not sure why she had just said that. "Well, I'm going to go look around some more. See you later, Ash."

"Kay. Bye." Ash went back to looking at himself in the mirror.

"Well, that was easy," Dawn muttered to herself as she walked away. Pikachu scratched his head in confusion, wondering what had just happened.

- - -

It wasn't long after that that the storm outside finally stopped, almost as abruptly as it had began, and just as abruptly as Mr. Kyube announced it was closing time. "But it's only three-thirty in the afternoon!" Brock protested.

"Yes, but I have to get home to the missus early. Today is a big holiday back where I come from," Mr. Kyube explained.

"Really? Which one?" asked May.

"And where exactly do you come from?" Max added. "Maybe I've heard of it."

"I highly doubt that. If there is anything you wish to purchase before you leave, do it now, and then I really am afraid you must go," Mr. Kyube said.

In the end they bought a few things. Ash decided to get the pharaoh costume after all, as well as a couple of weird-looking Pokéballs which supposedly could be used to catch Pokémon of a more mythic bend such as ghosts and dragons with greater accuracy, as well as a toy sword for Pikachu, who seemed fascinated by it. Misty got the book of mythical sea creatures she had been looking at earlier and a small crystal pendant in the form of a coiled Milotic. May got a number of ribbons and batons with spells and charms written on them that were supposed to ensure she put on a better show during contests, as well as a bandana that supposedly belonged to a legendary coordinator and still retained a bit of her spirit and skill. Brock got quite a few love potions, enchanted perfume bottles, and a copy of the Kama Sutra. Tracey purchased several pencils made from enchanted charcoal and a number of sketch pads made from especially fine paper made from the bark of ancient magical trees in another land. Max didn't get anything, because at that point they had used up most of their money on the other items they had purchased, and everything he wanted was way too expensive, much to his disappointment. Dawn didn't get anything at all, nor did she need to, for she suddenly felt as if she had everything she needed. All that passed between her and Mr. Kyube as the group left the shop was a conspiratorial wink, and then they were gone.

They were all carrying the charms they had purchased or been given, naturally.

Once they were gone, Mr. Kyube chuckled and shed his human disguise, allowing his many tails to spread out behind him. He had set the wheels of fate in motion, now all he needed to do was sit back and watch the events that were to follow unfold. His superiors would be pleased with him, as would his wife. Great happiness would soon be attained to his customers, and the Wandering Magic Shop Corporation would have succeeded once again in bringing joy to the chaotic multiverse. And that meant he'd receive a big bonus! More than enough to build the new addition to the house he and the missus had been planning for a while…

With thoughts of happiness, romance, architecture, and fat paychecks filling his mind, the man who had called himself Mr. Kyube cast the spell that would transport his little shop of wonders to wherever it was next needed. His shop vanished from the forest, almost as if it had never been there in the first place, and perhaps that was indeed the case….

And Ash and his companions soon found their way out of the woods, blissfully unaware of the true nature of the shop they had just left or the far greater plan they had just become a part of.

While the rain had stopped, and they had found their way out of the forest, the group was still some distance from the nearest town by the time night fell. They were forced to set up camp in an open grassy meadow, featureless save for a small hill in the center with a withered old tree standing on the top. After spending most of the evening eagerly looking over their new magical purchases and purchases and discussing all the many neat things they'd do with them. All except Max, who talked enviously about all the things he wished he had gotten, and Dawn, who hadn't gotten anything at all and was fine with it.

Eventually, they got tired and headed off to bed, setting up separate tents for each of them. Only three trainers remained up: Ash, Misty, and Dawn.

Dawn had cleverly managed to take each unknowing lovebird aside at separate times during the day, and she had easily been able to convince the two of them to give the charms that she had purchased to each other that night, when everyone else had gone to bed. Naturally, neither trainer was aware of the fact that they were each receiving a gift, and simply thought they were giving something nice to nice to a friend. A very, very good friend.

Dawn pretended to go to sleep but secretly stayed awake in her sleeping bag, waiting for the sounds of motion outside her tent, the sign that Ash and Misty were each leaving their tents to meet up at the hill, beneath the tree, which she had loudly pointed out over dinner to make sure they would both go there when everyone else was asleep.

Eventually, she heard the sound of one tent flap unzipping, followed by the sound of someone quietly setting out through the grass towards the hill. A few minutes later, she heard another tent flap zip, followed by someone rather loudly setting out through the grass, despite his clumsy attempts at being stealthy.

She giggled in amusement at this, waited a bit, then unzipped the entrance to her own tent and stepped outside. Crouching low to the ground, she very quietly headed towards the hill, where she could clearly see Ash and Misty seated beneath the withered tree, silhouetted by the full moon in the sky. Its bright light was rather inconvenient, since it lit up the meadow and left very few shadows for Dawn to conceal herself in, but Ash and Misty were too busy being awkwardly silent and not looking at each other to notice her approaching.

Dawn crept to the base of the hill and waited in silence, listening hard for Ash and Misty to say anything. She had to wait an irritatingly long time, though, and she nearly fell asleep before Ash finally spoke up and said, "So....Misty..."

"Yeah, what is it Ash?" Misty asked to the two words that escaped Ash's lips. "Is there something you want to say?" Misty was also nervously twirling the small gold tail pendant in her hand behind her back, out of Ash's sight but not Dawn's. She knew one of them would have to break the silence filling the air, as big as the full moon that was shining down on them.

"Ash... I got something for you." She moved her hand in front of her, but stopped for a moment, hesitant, before opening her fingers to reveal the small gold pendant in her hand. "I want you have this."

Ash only blinked and stared at the small charm in surprise, for in his coat pocket, clutched by his own hand, was an exactly identical tail pendant. He shook himself out of his puzzlement, than said, "I... I heard that you might like this..." He pulled out his hand from his pocket and opened it to reveal the pendant Dawn had given him.

Misty blinked in confusion, surprised that he happened to have a pendant exactly the same as the one she had. Normally she might have found that rather suspicious, but in the current romantic setting, her teenage body raging with hormones, uncertainties, and her feelings for Ash, she was too amazed and touched by Ash's seemingly thoughtful gesture to think much of it. Her eyes twinkled in the moonlight. "It's beautiful... let's exchange them now okay?" She seemed to have gotten some courage back and she didn't want to lose it now.

Ash nodded. "Okay." It didn't even occur to him to wonder why Misty might have a pendant exactly like his own, sadly. He just accepted it as 'one of those things'. They quickly pressed the pendants into each other's free hand and froze, feeling as if a powerful current was running through their bodies from the contact of their bare skin.

Dawn watched from her hiding spot, rubbing her foot, which had fallen asleep, hoping that the two lovesick idiots would kiss already. She got her wish, though not quite the way she had wanted, as Misty suddenly leaned forward and kissed Ash on the cheek, causing the Pokémon Trainer's jaw to drop, making him look rather like a Magikarp. He could only blink at the suddenness of it, feeling warmth spread across his check and face in a blush. Misty was looking away, blushing as well, amazed at what she had just done. She had imagined kissing Ash many times before but that night... she found that she finally found the courage to carry through on her desires.

Ash placed the charm around his neck and smiled as Misty did the same. He couldn't help but think that the moonlight made their charms shine with some inner fire, one that paled compared to Misty's radiant smile. He smiled as well, but suddenly felt unusually warm, much to his surprise. He couldn't understand why, it was a cool evening and...

He felt a pain at the base of his spine, but it was only a moment of discomfort. He blinked when he saw Misty's face scrunch up in pain as well, but it was gone a second later. However, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was happening, but what was it?

Dawn, still in her hiding spot, was barely able to keep in her cry of shock as she saw a tail emerging from both Ash and Misty's rears, passing through their pants as if they weren't there. The tails were red and curly, and before Dawn's eyes they each split into more and more tails until suddenly the red rusty color faded to a golden cream color, the tail tips the only part retaining their original color. The tails stopped multiplying when there were nine of them, and Dawn couldn't help but think of old pictures of a certain Pokémon associated with curses and magic, the vulpine Ninetales.

Ash looked at Misty as he took her hand, not noticing that his hand was growing a cream color, fur sprouting from it as it turned into a paw. He shoes also became misshapen as his feet turned into paws. He did not notice any of it, for he was unable to take his eyes off Misty.

Misty took Ash's hand as her own hands and feet along with her body became covered in creamy golden fur. It was only when she noticed minute changes in Ash's face that the spell seemed to waver; she could see fur creeping up his neck as his chin and nose grew longer into more of a muzzle. Ash, oblivious to what was happening to him, blinked and bowed his head a little, embarrassed, but his embarrassment turned to shock as Misty's face began to change as well. The fur grew up the sides of her face, attacking her red hair as it grew longer, but more of a creamy color, stretching down to her waist. The fur melted her ears and on two new ears like those of a fox grew from the top of her head.

Misty looked at Ash as the fur on his chin spread up and around his elongating mouth and nose, both of which grew out to become a vulpine muzzle. Both of them noticed at the same time that their vision took on a reddish tint as their eyes turned red and the last traces of pink skin became covered in the creamy golden fur of a Ninetales.

Dawn's jaw dropped as she watched Ash and Misty turn into what looked like humanoid Ninetales. She was just as surprised by this as they were. "A-Ash?!" Misty, now completely looking like a humanoid (and very beautiful and shapely) Ninetales cried in terror, wrapping her arms around herself, finding some small measure of relief when she found that she was still clothed in her pajamas, even if they didn't completely fit her anymore. "Wh-what's happening to me?!"

"I d-don't know!" Ash yelled, looking himself over in astonishment and disbelief. "The same thing happened to me too! What's going on?!"

_Oh crap, this is all my fault!_ Dawn realized, face growing pale. _They started changing soon after they put on those charms I got from Mr. Kyube! But why would they?_ She gasped. _He said those charms were magic, and would bring love and happiness beneath the full moon, and there's one out right now! Did. Did he give those to me to trick me into matchmaking Ash and Misty so they'd be turned into some kind of mutant Ninetales?! Why the heck would he do something like that?!_ She felt hurt, and confused, and betrayed. The old shopkeeper, or wizard, had clearly manipulated her, and that didn't make her feel very good about herself.

That feeling didn't last for much longer, as a great thunderclap sounded, snapping her out of her self-pity. She looked up in astonishment, as did the frightened Ash and Misty, as a brilliant golden light appeared in the sky above them, shining its radiance down on the meadow and turning night into day. They watched, dumbfounded, as everything the light touched shone and seemed to transform, as if becoming less a part of the mundane regular world and more like some ethereal land of the spirits. The green grass carpeting the meadow turned a bright amber hue, flowers of many magnificent colors blossoming from the ground and filling the area with light glowing from their luminescent petals. The sky turned reddish, the stars and moon becoming brighter and seeming, oddly, closer than they should have been. The withered tree on the hill all three of them were sitting on glowed brightly and suddenly sprouted its age and warped wood peeling away to reveal a beautiful cherry blossom tree, bright pink leaves and flowers swaying in the breeze and making a sound like wind chimes.

The golden light continued to shine from overhead, and the trio gasped as suddenly the shimmering rainbow-hued form of the phoenix Ho-Oh and the enormous emerald serpentine dragon Rayquaza appeared, soaring high above the clearing and circling the light. However, by gasping, Dawn revealed herself, for Ash and Misty's new ears were sensitive enough to hear her sharp intake of breath. "Huh? Dawn? What're you doing here?" asked a startled Ash.

Dawn sweat dropped and slowly crawled over to them. "Um. I had to go to the bathroom, and came over when I saw something weird happening to you guys, and then this happened?"

"Oh, okay. Hey, thanks for that charm, by the way, Misty liked it, just like you said she would!" Ash said foolishly, not realizing the consequences of his actions or noticing Dawn turning paler and making gestures for him to shut up.

Misty blinked. "What? But. she said YOU'D like that charm she gave me to give to you." She stopped. Her eyes narrowed as she put two and two together. "Hey... Wait a minute." She snarled, her eyes lighting up with flame. Literally, since she was now a Ninetales. "Did you set us up?! Did you have something to do with this?!"

Dawn laughed nervously while Ash blinked in confusion. "Um... Maybe a little?" She stopped laughing, her face going deadpan. "I'm dead, aren't I?" Misty's howl of fury confirmed this.

The strange transformation of the clearing did not go unnoticed by the rest of their friends. One by one, the tents on the ground unzipped, and the rest of the group poked their heads out to see what was going on. Their eyes widened and their jaws dropped when they saw the otherworld they found themselves in, and the dragon and phoenix flying above them.

"Holy Miltank! This is incredible!" cried Tracey, quickly whipping out his new drawing tools and sketchpad to capture the scene.

"This has to be a dream!" Brock said. "Hey, wait .if it's a dream, then where're Nurse Joy and Office Jenny?"

May squealed in fright and retreated back into her tent, curling up into a ball and whimpering, "This is not happening, this is not happening, this is not happening."

"This is AWESOME!" Max yelled, face beaming eagerly.

"Pika pika." _That's the last time I eat ketchup with an expiration date older than I am,_ Pikachu said, shaking his head in amazement.

"Misty, why are you strangling Dawn?" asked a confused Ash.

"BECAUSE THIS LITTLE BITCH TRICKED US INTO GIVING EACH OTHER THOSE CHARMS, WHICH CLEARLY ARE BEHIND OUR SUDDEN TRANSFORMATION!" Misty screamed as she throttled Dawn.

Ash blinked. "Oh." He debated whether he should pull Misty off Dawn or help her strangle the girl.

"I... had... no... idea... I... swear!" Dawn gasped, face turning blue.

"Stop!" a voice cried out, a voice of pure beauty and light which resonated in their minds and instantly compelled Misty to stop strangling Dawn. "Dawn Hikari has done nothing wrong. She was merely an instrument of Fate, and if anything should be rewarded, not punished, for her actions."

"I do?" Dawn rasped, rubbing her throat.

"She does?" asked Ash.

"Who are you?!" yelled Misty.

"What the heck is going on?" wondered Tracey, pausing in his sketches.

"Officer Jenny, Nurse Joy, where are you?!" Brock screamed, checking inside his sleeping bag, under a rock, and down May's shirt, causing her to scream and slap him. "Ow! Sorry." He gasped. "Oh no, if there aren't any pretty women fawning over me, then this isn't a dream. it's a NIGHTMARE!"

The golden light contracted on itself and suddenly shot down from the sky towards the hill and the cherry blossom tree, stopping abruptly at eye level and startling the trio standing beneath its branches. Rayquaza and Ho-Oh stopped their circling and both gazed down at the hill from on high, causing the three humans (or one human and two mutant things) to feel rather uneasy. The light dimmed and faded away, revealing a small form that was unbelievably beautiful in its simplicity and soft curves, a pink kitten-like Pokémon with a long tail weaving through the air behind it and big blue eyes as deep as the heavens. "I am Mew, goddess of love and life and embodiment of pure light!" the kitten announced, in reply to Misty's earlier question.

"Oh wow, it's Mew!" Max cried. "Again. Didn't we see it a while ago? In a crystalline tree? I think there was a Lucario there too. and Ash pulled off some weird Aura thing?"

"Amazing!" said Tracey, quickly drawing the divine figure. "Won't the Professor be thrilled when he hears about this!"

May, who had poked her head out of her tent upon hearing Mew's voice, wondered, "Would it be blasphemous to try and catch Mew and put her in Pokémon Contests?"

"Yes," Max said flatly.

"Mew, what's going on? What are you doing here, and why have we been turned into Ninetales things?" Ash asked the deity.

"And why can't I kill Dawn?" asked Misty.

"And what was that about being an instrument of Fate?" asked a confused Dawn.

"It has been written in the stars that the union of Ash and Misty would balance the cosmos and bring great prosperity to our world," Mew explained. "However, at the rate these two were moving at, they'd be together by the time the entire universe had died of old age. TWICE. So, we decided to give this young couple-"

"We're NOT A COUPLE!" Ash and Misty, blushing furiously, yelled.

"Yes you are," Mew corrected gently. "Anyway, we decided to give you a little push in the right direction by placing Mr. Kyube's shop in your place in hopes that you would stumble upon one of the many love spells or charms therein. Unfortunately, you didn't, however, young Dawn was able to do it for you, finding a pair of charms which would seal your union and bind your love forever."

"By turning us into Ninetales?" asked a confused Misty.

"Yes. It wasn't part of the cosmic balance, but it's still a nifty side effect," Mew explained. She turned to Dawn, who started trembling and wondered if she should be kneeling. "Dawn, my beloved daughter-"

"Wait, she's not your daughter," protested Ash.

Mew frowned at him, causing him to swallow. "I'm the Progenitor of all life, everything is my child. Anyway, Dawn, none of this could have happened without you. My child, we are eternally grateful for your part in bringing this union together at long last."

"Wait, you're thanking me for lying and manipulating people?" asked Dawn.

"Yes," said Mew.

"Oh, okay."

"And to thank you for allowing this miracle to take place, you shall receive an equivalent reward," Mew continued." She looked at Ash and Misty. "The magic of the charms you gave them, which they exchanged with each other, have transformed them into Ninetales. As a result, they will be blessed with a thousand years of life together and much happiness."

"Wait, you mean I have to spend the next thousand years with him/her?!" Ash and Misty cried at once, looking at each other.

"Yes," said Mew. "May, the Bunneary-foot charm you purchased has similar transformational powers, but they are dormant. To reward you for fulfilling destiny, I shall awaken those powers so that you may reap their full benefits."

"Wait, you mean I won't be human anymore?!" Dawn cried in alarm. "N-no way! Thanks but no thanks, I don't want to be turned into a frea-- Um... Something else!" she amended quickly, not wanting to hurt Ash or Misty's feelings. "I'm happy the way I am!"

"You'll become luckier, more mature, and much more beautiful," Mew told her.

Dawn paused. "Oh. Okay then. Um, will this hurt?"

"No. It will just take a few moments. And it all starts with... This!" Mew darted forward and tapped the Bunneary-foot charm dangling around Dawn's neck. "There."

Dawn blinked and looked down at the charm in confusion. "Huh? I don't feel any-" She gasped as she felt a strange tingling sensation fill her body. She looked down at her hands just in time to see brown hairs spring up from her skin, thickening and turning into a furry coat which covered her upper body. She knew it was growing elsewhere, she could feel her new fur chafing slightly at her pajama top. Feeling a tingling on her face, she reached up with her new furry hands and touched her facial features, feeling them change and shift slightly beneath her fingers, becoming a little less human and a bit more rabbit-like. Brown fur sprouted from her face, her nose shrunk a little and became a little pink dot, and her eyebrows turned into two dots of creamy fur over her eyes. Her ears shrunk into the sides of her head and a pair of long brown bunny ears with pink insides and big creamy tufts at the tips sprouted from the top of her head, growing right through her long blue hair, which was growing longer, down to her waist.

That wasn't all that was growing, she could feel more fur covering her legs, and looked down to see that her feet were becoming longer and cream-colored, her five toes fusing into three. She was relieved that she had left her tent barefoot; otherwise she would have lost a good pair of shoes to this growth. She assumed her legs were now cream as well, since her Bunneary's were, though she wasn't exactly planning on taking off her pants to check, especially not with Brock watching.

Her fear of being ogled increased as suddenly her clothing got smaller and tighter about her, pressing against her furry skin uncomfortably. It took her only a moment to realize that her clothing hadn't shrunk, she'd just grown, her body becoming a little taller and more mature, pretty much bypassing the awkward years of puberty so that her figure would be more like a teenager's just a bit earlier than scheduled. Her too-small pajamas did rather little to hide her new curves and chest. She prayed that her pajamas didn't get stretched too much before she could get changed or find new clothes that fit her, she wasn't exactly fond of the possibility of being nude in front of her other friends... And Brock.

"Whoa," said Max.

"She's... a bunny girl?" said a confused May.

"Just like the kind in magazines! Err, the ones I don't read, I mean, I only know about them because Brock has a ton," Tracey said quickly.

"I knew it! This is a dream! It has sexy bunny girls!" Brock said, drooling eagerly.

"Not bad," Misty complimented. "Looking good, girl!"

"How do you feel?" asked Mew.

"Um, all right, considering that my body just matured a few years and I'm not completely human anymore." Dawn said slowly. "Could you do something about my clothes though? They don't exactly fit. And I don't mean leaving me naked either, I may be covered in fur but I'm not ready for that sort of thing!" she added quickly.

"No trouble at all," Mew said with a chuckle, expanding the molecules of Dawn's pajamas and causing them to enlarge just enough so that they fit her new form. Dawn sighed in relief, and Brock and Tracey grunted in disappointment. "I've also taken the liberty of adjusting your other clothes so they'll fit your better. You'll need to do a little modification on any new ones you buy, though. At least you won't need to spend money on shoes anymore, not with feet like those!"

"Thank you, Mew!" Dawn said gratefully.

"Think nothing of it," Mew said cheerfully. "Now, if you'll excuse me, since our business here is finished I must be on my way-"

"Hey, wait!" Mew blinked, and the other three turned around to see the rest of their party running up the hill. "Do us, too!" said Tracey.

"Yeah, we want you to activate the magic in our charms!" said Brock. "Then I can be irresistible to women!"

"And I can be stronger and more confident!" said May.

"And I can be. Um. Whatever it is this thing is supposed to do," Max said, looking skeptically at his sparkly ball charm.

"Um, I'm not sure that's such a good-" Ash started.

"Okay, no problem," Mew said, waving her hand and setting the magic to work.

Max's charm glittered and shimmered as it started to grow. It lifted right out of Max's hands and began to spin, becoming so bright all the other kids had to back away. For some reason, though, Max wasn't bothered by the bright light.

Moved by a voice he couldn't actually hear, Max reached up to the shimmering ball and found himself gently lifted and placed inside of it. He felt strangely relaxed as the light began to shift to many colors. Had he been paying attention, he would have noticed his clothes simply faded away in the light.

His skin took on a deep pink tone and his feet began to lengthen. His ears perked up into triangles, and his nose pressed out into a soft simple muzzle. A long tail with an oval bulb at the end grew out behind him. This event seemed to stir him from his dazed slumber and he looked around at the world around him like a newborn kitten that had opened his eyes for the first time. His eyes widened in childish innocence as cosmic knowledge flooded his mind. He flitted out, knowing instinctively how to fly, and spun around the older mew before landing and using Transform to turn into a Mew-ish-looking Max. Max looked up at the Mew and giggled, "Thank you, that was fun." Sure he knew almost everything, but the greatest thing he had learned was how to have fun. With a sudden jump, he touched Tracy's charm and giggled as he moved back to watch the show.

Tracy only looked on with wonder as his charm began to glow a pale transparent green color. He was shocked but unable to move as the light slowly spread out and around him. Ash was horrified. "Max, what did you do?" He sounded scared and terrified as he watched another one of his friends be turned into another Pokémon/human hybrid.

Tracey stared ahead in a daze, his mind in a fog. He could feel an armor-like substance form over his skin, turning him a dark green color as the outer exoskeleton hardened. His shirt changed to a green vest as his jeans also changed to fit the exoskeleton. He looked like he was gaining muscles, though if they were real or not was yet to be seen. He suddenly heard a buzzing noise behind him as bug wings grew from his back. He looked down at his arms and hands and screamed when he saw that they were gone, all that were left were scythes. He waved his his arms around in fright but stopped when he saw his hands appear again and the blades become somewhat akin to arm blades.

"Whoa." was all Tracey said. "I look cool." He looked down at his vest, which was a lighter green, with a patch that reminded him of a martial arts group. "I think I need to talk to my Scyther about this now."

Brock looked at Max. "So, you are controlling this? Or is the other Mew doing this?"

Both Mews giggled before launching small balls of blue energy at Brock's charm. "Both," they said at the same time, their voice sounding like a small silver flute.

The Charm turned upwards and somehow grew to a large size, affixing itself to Brock's chest and ripping away his shirt. Brock was speechless as brown fur started to spread out all over his body. Even the charm started to become soft and fuzzy, though its color remained a soft cream. Brock's hands became paws. While Brock didn't notice it, too concerned by how he was changing, the remainder of his clothes slipped off as he shrank down to the size of a small child. Brock's eyes forced themselves open, revealing small adorable brown eyes as his face pulled out into a cute muzzle. His ears moved to the top of his head as they grew rounder, and his hands and feet soon became paws. In seconds, sitting there confused in a pile of human clothing was an adorable Teddiursa.

Dawn blinked at the small cute Teddiursa. Right away she made an "AWWWW!" cry before running over and scooping him up in a hug. "You are so cute, you know that?" Ash and Misty both looked at each other. Their faces said the same thing. They wouldn't want to be hugged like a stuffed animal.

"Dawn." Max said, a giggle escaping from his mouth. "He needs to breathe, you know."

"OH! Sorry!" Dawn said letting her grip slacken a bit.

"Me next!" May said holding up her bell. Mew floated over to her.

"Before I start the magic you must understand, this charm holds great strength but also great beauty, only not in a way a human would understand. Also once this is activated there is no going back," Mew said solemnly. With a nod from May Mew gave the bell a light tap. It rang like the clear crystal bells atop the towers of Ecruteak city. The chime became perpetually louder, changing from a glass bell to a larger steel bell, and kept modulating until it sounded like a loud cowbell. May's hair turned black. Her ears receded as her bandana seemed to stretch out and two round black ears flopped out from under it. Pink fur began to spread across her face, highlighting her eyes as her nose bulged into a short bovine muzzle with a small black nose in the center. Two thin lines of black fur shot down her forehead, creating a pink triangle on her scalp.

Two stubs appeared under her bandana, the fabric tearing to reveal small spiky horns. The black fur spread down her neck and around her face before covering her back. The pink fur covered her front down to her feet. Both her feet and arms became covered in glove-like black fur. Her tailbone tingled as a long tail pink tail with a round pink sphere at the end snaked out the back of her shorts. May felt the bottom of her blouse become uncomfortable. She unbuttoned the lower portion to reveal a white ring around her stomach area and four developing udders. The white portion bulged out a tiny bit as milk began developing inside of it. Luckily lady Mew had learned from what happened with Dawn and May's blouse began to grow along with her chest, bypassing puberty to give her the figure of a pleasantly plump young woman. The bracelet grew to become a neck strap and the bell grew to become a small gold bell. The neck strap lifted itself off the ground and lightly tied itself around her neck. This hadn't been part of the spell, lady Mew just liked the way it looked. The girl looked down at her changed form in horror. "A cowgirl?" she whispered weakly.

"A creature with the strength to go on even when facing certain death. Miltank go on from day to day as if nothing was wrong, even when thousands of them are eventually going to become food for other creature, be it a common predator, a legendary dragon or even humans. Miltank posses the strength to give life and to sustain more life. They carry on no matter how bad things look, that is their strength and now it is yours," Mew giggled as she flicked her tail in her direction. "Just don't try to make too much milk until you have your first child."

"But what guy would want someone like me?" May asked despondently.

"Oh! Don't worry about that, hehe, the spell has what we call a double effect, it changes the person with the charm as well as the person that they are destined to be with, just look for a Tauros boy walking around," Mew said while chasing her tail in midair.

_Meanwhile, in a distant gym..._

"That's one step closer to the League Marshtomp, although they kinda stopped putting up a fight in the middle there. That was weird, huh? Uh, Marshtomp, why are you staring at me like that" Brendan Birch asked before he felt something hit his back, but he felt each of the hits from more than one place. Looking behind him he saw three white Tauros tails swaying from his rear.

_Back with our heroes…_

"Did someone just scream?" Dawn asked, rubbing her new bunny ears. The others sweatdropped. Dawn thought for a minute then looked at Mew "Does that effect go for my soulmate as well?"

"Doesn't need to, I know who you're destined for and he's already a werelucario" Mew said.

"Wait, werelucarios exist?" Ash asked in surprise.

Mew was about to answer when there was a sudden explosion. A Carnevine-shaped balloon appeared out of nowhere.

"By the pricking of my thumbs…" a female voice said

"Something evil this way comes!" said an almost feminine male voice.

"Falling from the stars," a woman said as she stood on the edge of the balloon basket, somehow defying gravity in spite of her normal clumsiness and oversized long red hair.

"Covering the land," said aman also standing on the edge of the basket, trying to look macho with a rose in his hand. (Little did he know that a certain superhero was currently looking for him.) His pose did little to hide his wimpiness, though.

"And controlling your mind!" said a Meowth as he appearing, somehow floating in midair. Little did he know gravity was not going to take this abuse, and so he was sent plummeting to the earth below.

"Destroying all that is ordered and neat!" the woman said, changing her pose.

"Spreading despair like sauce on your meat!" the man said, also changing his pose.

"We will cut down all who stand before us like wheat!" the woman said, facing her partner with her hand unwittingly out in a Nazi salute.

"And when everything's over, only we will truly be l33t!" the man said, doing the same thing.

"Jessie!" the scarily ugly redhead said.

"James!" the girly sad excuse for a guy said.

"Meowth…my head hurts…" Meowth moaned, his face still implanted in the ground.

"Here to stay no matter how many seasons there are…" Jessie said.

"TEAM ROCKET! We'll never leave! EVER!" the trio shouted in unison.

"Mime mime mime mime," Mime Jr. said after a silence that usually was filled Wobbuffet's intro. When the trio looked around for the blob they found him leaping off the edge of the basket after snapping his poke ball in half and flipping Jessie the bird. He had had enough of feeling pain for these losers and attacking Mew was just too much. His mother was right, he should have stayed home and raised a family!

Jessie looked at James in confusion. He shrugged. They turned to the heroes and did a double take. "Wait, what happened to the twerps?" James asked in puzzlement.

"It took you that long to notice?" Dawn said as the group sweatdropped.

"Should we even give them time to say their crazy plan?" Max asked, seeing that Brock had released Happiny and the two were currently having a game of tag…if you could call Brock running for his life to avoid the spine-snapping crush of one of Happiny's hugs 'tag'.

"Pipikapi" Pikachu said. (This won't take long pikapi!) Pikachu said, charging up his electrical sacks only for Ash to stop him.

"No Pikachu, let us try this!" Ash said as he opened his mouth and concentrated. A small ball of energy began to form in front of his mouth. Misty did likewise while Dawn's paw began to glow with freezing energy. Max charged up an Aura Sphere on the tip of his tail while Brock, getting bored of running and wanting to help with the fun, hit the balloon with a Confusion attack. The four other morphs let loose their beams right after that. Team Rocket screamed, finding the insulated coating they lined their balloon with unable to stand the combined power of the attacks. It exploded, flinging them into the air.

"That had to be our shortest fight yet!" James said.

"We really need a new agent," Meowth said.

"We're blasting off agaaaaaaain!" the group shouted as they went flying into the distance, save for one blob Pokémon who waddled happily away.

Mew smiled as she watched the Wobbuffet vanish into the horizon. He had let his loyalty to take precedence over loyalty to his trainer. She turned to the heroes, a smile on her face.

"Well, I must go now, and Max will have to come with me for a while to learn his new powers, as well as Mew customs and other things" Mew said. Nobody caught the strange glint in her eye at the last part. "But he'll be back soon. Anybody need anything else? No? Good, Arceus blessing on you my children," she said, not giving anyone the chance to protest or say farewells as she and Max disappeared in a flash of light.

After a moment, Ash turned to Misty. "So, where do we go from here?" he asked, still not sure what to make of what had just happened.

"Welllll…" Misty said, walking slowly up to Ash while stroking one of her nine tails. "They say Ninetales live for a thousand years." She was face to face with him now. He started sweating and turning red. "So now you can pay me back for my bike!" she said before grabbing his ear and towing him towards her tent.

Ash groaned as he was dragged along. "This is going to be an interesting thousand years…" he said as he disappeared into Misty's tent.

Dawn looked to May. The cowgirl just shrugged as they made their way back to their tents, Dawn grabbing a sleeping Brock and Happiny on the way. It had been a _very_ long night.

_Epilogue_

It was, as Ash had predicted, a very interesting thousand years. Before their wedding, Misty had found out they where going to be expecting kits. This moved the wedding date up significantly. Misty's sisters became jealous of her new looks, especially when people stopped talking about the spectacular Cerulean sisters plus one and just commented on the gorgeous Misty Ketchum and her three plain sisters.

The League ruled in favor of allowing pokemorphs to train Pokémon, so Ash continued his training and was awarded the title of Master two years later after beating Paul in an international championship match in front of nearly the whole world with a score of 6-0. The final match had been won by Ash's Infernape, formerly Paul's Chimchar, against Paul's Torterra.

To everyone's surprise, Pikachu lived several times longer then a normal Pikachu should have. Many people said this might be due to his constant exposure to the natural magic that flowed through Ash and Misty. He currently lives with Ash and Misty, him and his three equally long-lived mates, a Lopunny and a pair of Plusle and Minun twins.

Ash became a scholar after becoming a Master, spending long periods studying in an insatiable thirst for knowledge which lead to him discovering a book on manipulating Aura. It also led to finding a family genealogy that he found traced back all the way to Sir Aaron, the Wave-Guiding Hero.

Misty continued on as a gym leader. She has also appeared in a few different movies and has been used as a model for a superheroine character.

Sliphco eventually came up with technology advanced enough to allow manipulation of cells to make a human Pokémon-like, but currently they had not found a way to make the Ninetales gene workable.

Dawn went on to continue coordinating and made it all the way to the Grand Festival where she faced May for the title. The match ended in a draw, and led to Dawn meeting Mark, a boy who had been bitten by a Lucario at a young age and became a werelucario. The two have been steady since.

May also continued coordinating, though she tends to focus more on strategy then looks these days. Not long after the events that transformed her into a Miltank, she met up with Brendan Birch, a boy who had mysteriously become a Minotauros.

Max returned not long after Mew had taken him away. He was accompanied by a Kirilia who turned out had been the Ralts he had met years ago. The two continued to travel together as Max aspired to earn a Gym Leader's title.

Brock became a spokesbear for children's toys. He spent a lot more time with Happiny and also all the women he wanted, he was just too young to enjoy it. As the years went by, he and Happiny became close. Recently they evolved together, and who knows? There may be a new Happiny running around in the near future.

Jessie and James continued to chase after Ash and Pikachu until they made the horrible mistake of grabbing Ash by the tails. Bloodcurdling screams could be heard for miles, after which they were never seen again…

Wobbuffet returned to his ancestral homeland, found a lovely female Wobbuffet, and raised lots of Wynaut children.

Tracey went on to become an aspiring artist as well as a skillful martial artist. With his scyther as a personal trainer, he went on to become the world most reknown martial artist.

Mr. Kyube and his shop have been seen several times since then. Not a single customer was unhappy with their purchases.

_Fin! End of the line! This is it! Stop reading now! Really this is the end! There is no more! Go outside! Ride your bike! Walk your Poochyena! Just stop reading!_


	27. Red Chain Act Zero

The Red Chain

Author Note: This story is a group effort. It is written by Ryu the Weredragon, Tazkol Master of Emeralds, Thronezwei, Vulpix Trainer, and Wrath of Autumn.

Story Note: This is the first true multi-chapter story. It will be a total of nine chapters, including this one, although the TFs are found here. So enjoy this story we have laid out for you.

Act Zero: The Beginning of the End

This is a story best left untold. Any wise person would run out before they even touched this book. You're not that kind of person, are you? You and I are a lot alike. Both of us are inquisitive beings who let our curiosity get the best of us. The urge to learn and understand everything we can about ourselves, the world, the universe and everything else is an insatiable drive. Know this, stranger: the ugly revelation of the quest for such knowledge and wisdom is that the further outward we reach to know everything, the further back we shrink inward and discover that we truly are and understand nothing.

I have learned my lesson, a poor and shattered soul who has seen oblivion, touched it and forever changed because of it. I've tried so many times to graft it clean from my mind, but the dreams always come back. I do not sleep very often lest I see that thing again, that living tower of unspeakable horror. The great and terrible abomination that sat in a twilit grotto of gnawed bones and dark blood, all the energies of the universe swirling around him from an infinite chasm. And the wailing—always, always the wailing! The wailing of broken souls throwing themselves into annihilation, hoping to be spared the madness that has taken me.

So now I write with a quivering paw and a wandering eye of what I have seen, in the hopes that my visions will slowly fade. Is that what it wants me to do? Does it want me to taint the minds of others what I've witnessed? Am I an unwilling servant, doomed to serve the Elder Gods? How I wish it was someone else who did this! But no, no I am the only one fit for such a duty. Only someone as truly mad as I could write it exactly as it was meant to be written. And you who are still here reading this! You are a fool for ignoring me, unable to turn away from my speech as I continue to put in letter after letter, word after word, paragraph after paragraph. It has taken you too!

Then so be it. Find a good place to sit and relax as I tell you of this unspeakable creature. Did you know of the time when humans and Pokémon where once their own kind? A time when we lived together in perfect harmony, often having humans tame and train these wild creatures to battle against one another? Other times, they were simply pets, but always there was the drive to get stronger, a never-ending quest to be the mightiest.

Look at us now, however. I myself am a feeble Toxicroak and what are you? I assume something innocent as a Pikachu or a Minccino. Or perhaps you are a mighty Machoke or a wise Medicham? Do you not remember the way things used to be? I shall crave your pardon, however; perhaps then you were born as this. Did your parents or your parents' parents or the elders of your elders tell you of how history came to be? I think not! They are wise to look away from those ghastly times. I, however, am mad. As such, I will break your perception of reality to tell you the absolute truth!

Know, Pokémorph, that between the time of the End of Man and when Arceus rebuilt the world from the ashes, there was a world undreamed of. A time where one man, mad with the search for cosmic power, reshaped the world on a whim. It was the Age of Neverending Twilight and Oblivion, a land ravaged by nightmares and aberrations that broke even the most iron nerved. But despite how the emptiness tried to swallow our world into the void, life and free will continued on. It crawled out from the chasm and fought back against nothingness and infinity. The Elder Gods were banished from our existence and the world was reborn, fresh and young. And this age was left to be fairy tales for your children's children's children. That is not my place, however, to tell you a children's tale. Let me tell you of the days of Chaos!

Like every story, this tale begins with an origin. Once upon a time, there was a great mountain that covered much of what was then the Sinnoh Region. This was Mt. Coronet, a great giant of stone and rock, full of energy and memory. Atop its snow-covered peak and wind-hollowed ruins, an arcane ritual was taking place. The chilling wind sliced across the skies, carrying a voice uttering terrible, guttural words not meant for mortal ears. It was enough to bring the sensation of a thousand needles going through one's heart. But that did not stop the heroes of this tale.

Though the obsessed Team Galactic had secured many of the tunnels from the inside, twelve brave souls scaled the mountainside—Pokémon trainers as they were of old. They are not quite the stuff of legends as they are in your time, I'm sure. They were just like us as Pokémorphs, capable both of making mistakes and good decisions. But these trainers would forever go down in history.

Leading the party and the first to reach the ice covered peak was Atrus, a man who was very fat by their standards. Dressed in warm winter clothes, he had agreed to guide these trainers to stop a ritual he had very little interest in. He'd been a coal miner most of life and had earned everything he owned through hard work. Even now, he was unsure what he was doing there.

One at a time, the others made their way to the top: Ash Ketchum, a Pokémon trainer accompanied by his Pikachu—and to make a note, even Pokémon looked like Pokémon in those long-ago days-Brock, Gym Leader of Pewter City and aspiring Pokémon breeder; Misty, leader of the Cerulean City Gym; Max, Dawn, and May, several other companions who'd joined Ash's company since his start at Kanto; Timothy, the eldest there 29 years of age, who had wanted to make a name for himself; Peter, an agent from Snowpoint City on a special mission; Darius, an employee for an Unovian PMC firm known as Red Honchkrow; and William, a militant young man from the Unova Region. The twelve of them stood together, a small army against the might of Team Galactic.

Atrus, however, had done his deed. After he'd caught his breath, he looked to the others and said, "This is as far as I go. I've taken you this far up Mount Coronet, past all the dangers within the mountain. I'll be making my way down now."

"Hold on a moment, Atrus. We paid you to guide us up here and we'll need you on the way down. You've still got some time left on the contract, I think." Darius protested. He was on vacation when the call had come in, but was willing to cut it short as long as the contract was good. Despite this, he was a friendly sort of person when not doing his job.

"And anyway, aren't you the **least** bit worried about what's happening?" Timothy asked.

"I'm sure the league would reward you sufficiently for your aid," Peter said, knowing the man's weakness for money.

Atrus shrugged. "What good is money if you're going to get hurt in the process? Now if you excuse me, I've got soup on the stove." He turned to move past the group, but they'd effectively blocked him off.

"You really don't care what might happen if we don't stop this man? You might wind up getting hurt anyhow." Darius shook his head in frustration, not really willing to let Atrus pass at this point in time. Still, they had a formidable enough group, so stopping Galactic would likely be an easy task.

"So your going to leave me and a bunch of kids to save the world, then? Wow, I knew people were apathetic, but this is ridiculous," Timothy said.

"Heretic," Peter growled.

"Oh, come on!" Atrus said. "I did my end of the bargain. I don't want anymore business with this. Let the world break its own heads."

Ash sighed, "It happens all the time anyway. My friends and I are always the last ones left to solve these kinds of problems anyway."

Timothy put his hand on Ash's shoulder, "Well, I'm not letting it happen this time."

"You got our attention for a reason, and we're going to see this through to the end." Darius nodded and stepped forward a bit, adjusting his backpack as he did so. He was ready, though Atrus's nonchalant mood was starting to really get on his nerves.

"Ah... guys?" Max said, "Shouldn't we be going and not just standing here arguing?"

"Yes, listen to the boy! I suggest you all press on! But let me get back to my house. I can still afford to keep it (and my soup) from getting burnt!" Atrus, however, found himself being dragged with the party. "Hey! Let go of me already!"

"You're coming," Timothy said as he dragged the hiker along by his bag.

"Some of those Galactic goons might be waiting to ambush you. Can't let you get yourself hurt, right?" Darius gave a slight smirk as he helped Timothy drag Atrus along. He had all of his best Pokémon with him, and was ready to use them in case of a battle.

"M-Misty, if you want to stay behind, I'd understand," Ash found himself saying.

"Pikapi?" his Pikachu wondered.

Misty looked at Ash for a total of ten seconds before her fist came down on his head, reminding him who was the stronger of the two. "Like hell I am!" Her mood instantly changed. "But thanks for thinking of me," she said before walking away. Azuril giggled in her arms.

Ash rubbed his head, "I really don't get her sometimes..."

"Well, that's women for you," Darius said.

"Ahem," all the girls in the group said loudly.

"Er, forget I said anything," Darius said quickly.

"At least you _have_ a woman," Brock said miserably.

"I do not!" Ash yelled…but not very loudly, in fear that Misty would hear him. The others shrugged and rolled their eyes and continued forward.

Dawn's Buneary hugged Pikachu close as they ventured on, scared of what lay ahead. He sighed but decided it would be rude to shake her off, so let her cling to him. He tried to ignore the other girls cooing and saying what a cute couple they made, which only seemed to encourage his stalker.

The party continued on slowly through the snow, having to drag Atrus's girth up the mountain until he finally decided to walk on his own, muttering about his burnt soup. William had managed to find a way into Mt. Coronet, and they finally went inside the mountain, relieved that it was much warmer. They treaded across paths of stone and stalagmites, watching their footing in churning underground rivers. They came across a waterfall, roaring like a great beast, clouds of mist smoking the rims of the stone floor and filling their nostrils with the scent of rainwater.

Atrus gulped as he looked up. He was still questioning what he was doing here, but did not dare to try and make a break for it, having come so far and with the rest of the party ready to fight him. "This waterfall is the last obstacle. If we take this it should lead us to the Spear Pillar."

Peter looked to Timothy "Can Kamesama take us up?"

"I'm sure he can," Timothy said, releasing his Pokémon. The Blastoise shouted out as it was released from its ball. "Kamesama, we need to get up that waterfall. Think you can take us up?" Kamesama glanced at the number of people and Pokémon skeptically. "I promise, all but two of the Pokémon will be in their balls," Timothy assured the Blastoise. It nodded reluctantly, having every intention of making its trainer feed him extra for this later. All the Pokémon but Pikachu and Azurill were recalled as everyone climbed upon Kamesama's back.

"And here I was thinking I'd need Skywarp to fly some of us up," Darius said. The Hydreigon wasn't a mon Darius used that often in battle, more due to it being overkill most of the time rather than any sort of pushover.

Atrus looked at them with skepticism. "I think I'm too big for this but all right." Wading into the water, he prepared to climb onto the Blastoise's back.

"You could always use my Frillish," Peter offered.

"I'll rather ride this, thank you." Atrus squirmed his way onto Kamesama's back back, trying his best with his paw-like hands to get a good gripping on the giant.

"Alright, Kamesama, use Waterfall," Timothy said.

"Wait! What about William?" Atrus looked back to see him still standing on the riverbank.

"Go on, you can send him back for me. Someone's got to make sure no one is following, and if so... dispatch them to prevent the alarm being raised," William said.

"You sure about doing this solo?" Darius looked back with some concern. William had guts, but the soldier seemed a bit headstrong at times, which probably wasn't the best thing at the moment.

"I got my team, and my revolver. So it should be okay for the moment," William said confidently.

"Leave him. With soldiers, you can't convince them otherwise," Timothy said as they rocketed up the side of the waterfall.

"That's why I'm a merc, but still, I don't like the idea of him being on his own, full team of mon or not," Darius commented as they left William behind. But if William wasn't going to be moved otherwise, Darius would leave him be-an argument would only slow them down even more.

"I think Piplup would probably get a bit jealous that he couldn't bring us up," Dawn said.

"Are you kidding? Piplup couldn't carry **Max** up the waterfall, let alone any of the rest of us. I'm not trying to put him down, but he's a bit small for that kind of lifting," Max said. Pikachu privately thought that Piplup was too small to do much of anything, but thought it would be rude to point out. Not like they would understand him, anyway.

Once they reached the top of the falls and disembarked, the Blastoise dropped back down and returned with William on his back. "Okay, all clear, we should move on." He took the lead, moving forward to scout and battle.

"Uh, does he have any idea where he's going?" Brock asked.

"Considering that I'm the guide and he didn't stop to ask me, no," Atrus said. "He's going the wrong way. The entrance is this way, beyond this formation of limestone." Atrus pointed to a column of rocks that spanned a few meters, grinning ghoulishly like a mouth of broken teeth.

Ash muttered into his hand, "Okay. Peter, think you can get William back here?"

Peter sighed reluctantly. "If I have to…" Sighing, he trudged off to find the gung-ho soldier. Just as he stepped forward, the floor erupted in clouds of dark smoke. "Agh! What's going on?"

The cavern echoed with mocking laughter. Laughter that made Ash's eyes brim with annoyance. William heard the sounds of laughter and came charging back to help, but because of all the smoke couldn't see where he was going and ran right into a limestone column. "Ow..."

Suddenly a strange melody began to play in the air around them, making some of them look questioningly for the source of it.

"Who's there?" Timothy shouted.

"I bet I know," Brock said glumly.

"They're still doing this?" Misty complained.

"Yes," the rest of her friends said.

"Doing what?" Darius asked.

"You're about to find out," Ash said morosely.

"Listen, is that a voice I hear?" said an arrogant female voice.

"It's speaking to me, loud and clear," an effeminate male voice said.

"On the Wind!"

"Past The Stars!"

"In your ear!" an annoying third voice chimed in.

"Bringing Chaos at a breakneck pace!"

"Dashing Hope, putting fear in its place!"

"A Rose, by any other name is just as sweet!"

"When everything's worse, our work is complete!"

"Jessie!" the woman cried as she revealed herself to be a rather hideous red headed woman.

"And it's James!" the male said as he revealed himself to be a blue-haired man who looked very much like a woman.

"And Meowth, now dat's a name!" the third, an obnoxious Meowth cried.

"Putting the do-gooders in their place..." Jessie said.

"We're team Rocket..." James said.

All three shouted at once, "...In your face!"

A blue punching bag like Pokémon popped out of his Pokéball, "WOOOOBBUFETT!"

A second Pokémon, Mime Jr., leaped up beside him, "Mime! Mime!"

Peter looked annoyed. "Was that an attempt to intimidate us? Because frankly I was gonna' knock you unconscious, now I'm gonna' make it hurt."

"We really don't have time to play around with you schmucks, so get lost!" Darius's left hand immediately dipped towards the ball that housed Garazzo, the Bisharp would be able to take care of whatever was thrown at them by this team. "Or I'll have Garazzo forcefully remove you from the area."

"...I... don't know," Timothy said, "I mean, I've _**heard**_ of Team Rocket, but I thought they were dangerous Pokémon Gangsters in Kanto. Not...Clowns."

"Hey! We're not clowns!" Jessie shouted.

Ash muttered, "They might as well be."

"Enough! I hate theatrics!" Atrus took out a Pokéball and hurled it towards the ground. "Aegis! Crush them!" Emerging from the ground a bastiodon roared out and charged at the trio.

Peter gestured and a rather large Dusknoir rose from his shadow. "Prometheus, have fun." The Dusknoir rushed ahead, firing Shadow Balls similar to a Gatling gun.

"Really, I am from the Unova Military. Mottos don't scare me," William said as he staggered off the ground, blinking to try and get rid of the Psyducks spinning around his head. "Ranger, let's go!" A Pokéball was thrown out, releasing a Zebstrika. "Flame Charge!"

"Garazzo, time to collect our pay for the fight!" He tossed an Ultra Ball, which opened to reveal a red and black humanoid with blades all over. "Night Slash attack, now!"

"I'm... not even going to bother. I think this will be enough damage as it is," Timothy noted.

"...Really? We usually all blast them anyway," May noted.

"I'm saving my Pokémon's strength for the real enemy here," Timothy said, resolute.

Team Rocket unleashed their Pokémon and a very one-sided battle ensued. But Atrus's face was livid. Apparently he really didn't care for theatrics. Or imbeciles. Or imbeciles performing theatrics. "Aegis, Rock slide! Barricade these goons!" Atrus cried out. Stomping its foot against the earth, the ancient monster roared out as the cavern began to shake, boulders collapsing around the trouble trio.

"Idiot, we need to get past them," Peter shouted.

"And here I thought you were worried...but we do need to get **past** them, so clear those rocks! Garazzo, take out that Meowth! Iron Head should to the trick!" Darius ordered. The Bisharp charged the Scratchcat, ready to smash it with its bladed head.

"Waaaaaahhhh!" Meowth howled as he flew through the air, smashing into a wall…And causing more rocks to start falling.

"Uh-oh," Jessie and James said, turning pale.

"Idiot, we need to get past them," Atrus said deadpan, causing Peter and Darius to sweatdrop. "The cave's not gone yet! Come on! Let's get through quickly!" Atrus cried making a sudden dash that was rather fast for someone his size. He scaled over the piling rubble, returning Aegis to his Pokéball at the last minute.

Ash and the others followed just as quickly, leaving the Rockets behind. The trio looked in dismay as their mortal enemies got away from them once more. Meowth made a comment as the falling rocks crashed closer and closer to them. "Now that's what I call bringing the house down!"

"That's not funny, mister! We're really caught in a tight spot!" James said, unable to move…which meant he was unable to run when he saw Peter's Dusknoir, who he'd left behind to torment them, staring at them. "I'm scared stiff!"

The Dusknoir cackled evilly, cracking its knuckles

The trio's screaming could be heard throughout the mountain. Some of the group in the rear could swear they heard "Looks like Team Rocket's peeing in their pants again!" but the sound was so faint from the cave-in, it was hard to make out. Peter just smiled as he ran

"You certainly know some odd people, Ash." Darius couldn't help but chuckle as they ran along.

"That's…one term to use for them," Ash said.

"How did they even know we were here?" Darius asked.

"I'm... not sure. They seem to follow me **everywhere**," Ash said. "Every day since I started my journey, in fact. They seem to be after Pikachu, though any other Pokémon will do in a pinch."

"They do know Pikachus aren't that rare, right? I mean, yours is strong, but there are others that are far more rare," Darius said.

"Try telling **them** that," Misty noted. "Though to be fair, there are times when Pikachu manages to even damage Pokémon that should be immune to his electricity."

"Huh, he doesn't look like such a big deal to me," William said. Pikachu glared at him and hit him with a crippling Thunderbolt. "I stand corrected," he wheezed.

They continued on, scaling a great stairway up the mountainside as natural stone turned to sculpture and the sky around them shaded to a dark midnight, stars sparkling around them. As mountain segued into ruins, they knew at last they had reached the Spear Pillar. Standing atop an altar in a ring of stone columns was a pale man in strange clothes, his spiky blue hair blew and rustled as if blown by some ill wind, yet their was not a single breath of air up this high. In his hands, he held aloft a necklace of red jewelry. He muttered strange words into the ether, uninterrupted by their presence.

Atrus clutched his chest, trying to catch his breath from the long climb. He might've lost a few pounds along the way. "Something's not right here. Is that the man you're looking for?"

"That'd be him, all right. Cyrus...the leader of Team Galactic." Darius stepped forward, readying Skywarp for a battle. If Cyrus was half the trainer he'd heard rumors about, the group would need their heaviest hitters out.

"And who are they?" Atrus pointed to two women stepping out from the shadows. They must've had some of the most ridiculous hairstyles, one styled like Toxicroak and the other much like a Medicham. They stepped forward in front of the group, arms spread.

"Don't interfere with the ritual! Our leader will soon have all the power needed to change the world forever!" the woman with the Medicham hair said.

"...So, you're members of Team Galactic then," Timothy said.

"Venus and Uranus, wasn't it?" Darius asked.

"Our names are Mars and Jupiter, you idiot!" the woman with the Toxicroak hair shouted.

"Eh, close enough," Darius said.

"We are loyal followers of Cyrus! We are not as weak as Saturn!" Jupiter announced.

"Well, considering how poorly the Sega Saturn did, that doesn't really mean anything," Max said. "Yeah, I went there."

Pulling out Pokéballs, they crouched into a battle stance. "We're prepared to stop you with all we've got!" Ash said.

"I'm not," Atrus said. "I'm not even supposed to be here." Everyone glared at him, and he sighed and took out his Pokéballs.

"You're still outnumbered, and we've got some power on our side. But, if you insist, Skywarp, time to take them down!" A Dusk Ball hit the ground, revealing a three-headed dragon-type with multiple wings, which stared at the duo sinisterly. "Call out your best, guys! We really can't afford to pull our punches here!" Darius shouted.

Prometheus rose through the floor. "Hey, what took you so long?" Peter asked. The Dusknoir laughed malevolently, blood dripping from his hands. "Oh, okay."

"Come on, Hiryuu!" Timothy shouted as he released his Dragonite.

Atrus hurled his Pokéball. "Greggle, let's rock!" Emerging to join the ranks of the massive force came a Golem crashing into the stone, cracking the pavement as it cried its name.

"Pikachu, go!" Ash commanded.  
"Misty calls Gyarados!" Misty yelled.

"Battle stations." William called, bringing out his team: a Dewott, Liepard, Unfezant, Zebstrika, Zorua, and Minccino.

"Mamoswine, Spotlight!" Dawn shouted

"Blaziken! Come on out!" May shouted.

"Come on, Croagunk!" Brock said.

"Go, Kirlia!" Max shouted.

"You don't have a Kirlia," May said.

Max sighed. "Yeah, I know."

Mars and Jupiter stepped backward, flinching at the sight of such a strong force. They snapped out of their hesitation, however and threw out their own Pokémon. To confront the forces of the party emerged two Bronzors, Golbats, a Purugly and a Skuntank. Though they were horribly outmatched, the Pokémon of the Galactic Administrators screeched in defiance.

"It does not matter if we lose, don't you see?" Mars shouted. "We're only here to stall for time!"

"Cyrus will have his world! All for us!" Jupiter added.

"Of course, now that you mentioned that, WE CAN JUST OPEN A PATH THROUGH YOU!", Timothy shouted, "Hiryuu, Dragon Rage!"

"Pikachu, Volt Tackle!" Ash commanded.

"Gyarados, Hyper Beam!" said Misty.

"Fire Blast the Bronzor on the right and be ready to evade!" Darius said. With a rather sinister screech, the dragon belched what looked like a symbol made out of fire at one of the two metallic bell-monster-things, hitting it so hard part of its face melted off. "Thanks for giving your plans away, by the way!"

"Prometheus, Ominous wind!" Peter ordered.

"Mamoswine, Blizzard!" said Dawn.

"Blaziken, Flamethrower!" Dawn cried.

"Croagunk, Poison Sting!" said Brock.

"Greggle! Earthquake!" Atrus commanded.

"Wild Charge, Wake-up Slap, Razor Shell!" William yelled. The rest of the soldier's attacks were drowned out by the other noise, but his team heard and obeyed as they charged to cut a path through them.

"Jirachi, Doom Desire!" Max yelled.

"Max-" May started.

"I know, I know, I just didn't want to be left out," Max said.

The combined force of the Pokémon attacks were too much for Mars, Jupiter and their Pokémon. The force from the blast forced them apart, flying against the walls and scattering their Pokémon across the floor like ragdolls. It continued onward to Cyrus, who continued to stand there as he was enveloped in a terrible explosion.

"Yes! We did it!" Ash cheered.

"That wasn't supposed to happen!" Atrus protested. "Pokémon aren't supposed to kill!"

"It had to be done." Peter said unfettered. "Better for one man to die than entire nations."

Brock seemed full on alert. "I don't think it's over. Something's wrong."

"It is **done**!" A hoarse voice cried from the midst of the smoke. The Pokémon trainers stiffened in their tracks, frozen in shock at the sound of that voice. It could not have happened, no! No person could have survived an attack from 18 Pokémon all at once! Well, okay, they probably could have, Team Rocket had managed to do it all the time, but still! There should've been a smoldering crater, but in its place there he stood! Cyrus was still alive!

And this is where my story turns for the darker, my devoted reader, for Cyrus had survived but changed. His stance was prouder, as if that emotionless walking corpse could feel alive again. If one looked carefully enough, it was as if his body was covered in an aura of scarlet, eerie light. What was this power that had possessed him? He looked at the party with a malicious grin as he lowered his hands. "It is done. The Red Chain is ready to use. I warn you now, do not touch me! For I am filled with awesome power I have yet to tap!"

Cyrus raised the Red Chain into the heavens and then yelled out, "Now, Red Chain! Show me the extent of your power!" His aura began to grow in strength, so much it seemed to burn away at his skin. "Yes! There is so much power here! So much power!" But then he began to hunch over, his body wracked with pain. "So much...**too much**power! I can't…control…it! AAH! !"

His voice began to crack and modulate, as if he were speaking with a second, nefarious voice. They continued to watch as he suddenly straightened up into convulsions, a pillar of red energy firing out into the stars like a laser from some science fiction movie. Everything turned white as the energy intensified, enough to make the loose rocks and pebbles rip out of the ground and float in midair, gravity all nonsense now.

"What's happening?" Atrus shouted, really wishing he'd never gotten out of bed that morning.

"Fuck..." Timothy muttered. "I think he managed to absorb the powers of the Red Chain."

"Basecamp, come in basecamp, Code Red, I repeat Code Red!" William yelled into a radio. It didn't respond back, almost as if the radio signal was completely cut off.

"How the hell is that possible? They never mentioned this would happen! We need to stop him, one way or another!" He pulled out his handgun and fired it at the pillar, but it had no effect.

The energy began to dissipate, being pulled backwards as if in some vacuum into the deep cosmos. Their vision finally cleared and Spear Pillar was as it was.

But the creature that stood before them was not Cyrus…Or perhaps it was a fascinating mimicry of him. It stood, like a shadowy aberration smoking with dark clouds, tendrils of a material neither flesh nor matter as any of them knew it extending outwards like the terrible flares of a star. It was true black. Not black as we know as a color, but the complete absence of color. This strange abomination stared at them with dagger-like eyes that glowed in that chasm of a being, almost as if they could pierce their souls.

Ash still looked as defiant as ever, as if standing up to foreboding creatures was something he did on a daily basis.(Which it was).

"No," it whispered in that strange voice Cyrus was talking in before he disappeared. "No, this is not too much. I understand now. I understand everything. I am everything. The world is now mine to command! To **control**!"

"Mother Mew help us," Peter moaned, making the sign of Arceus's wheel.

"All things will die in the abyss that awaits them!" Cyrus bellowed.

"We're still here, and I'll be damned if I'm letting you leave here. You can come voluntarily, or involuntarily...but you're going to come with us. Rumble, get ready!" Darius said, sending out his Weavile, who stared at Cyrus and wished he hadn't gotten out of bed that morning.

"Pikachu, go!" Ash yelled.

Pikachu rushed at the shadowy figure, again utilizing the power of Volt Tackle. "Pikapikapikapikapikapikapika-PI-KA!"

William had a gut feeling. "All options, I repeat, all options are a go here, there is...I feel, something old, something that might be more, I feel oppressed here, all options should be sent...I, Just trust me." Still, the radio did not respond back.

"Seems our hand has been tipped! Rumble! Blizzard attack now!" Darius ordered. The Weavile complied, sending a gale of ice and snow at what was once Cyrus, being careful to avoid hitting Pikachu. The creature, however, backhanded the electric mouse and absorbed the electricity into his body. Pikachu came flying back with such momentum it almost knocked Ash off his feet. The blizzard that came afterwards was just as ineffective, coating him with ice, but then being absorbed into the absolute darkness.

"What the...it didn't even faze him!" Both Darius and Rumble took a step backwards - this wasn't something any of them were used to, and he was starting to wonder if they were in way over their heads.

"Prometheus, I know I swore I'd never ask for this, but... contain him!" Peter commanded. The Dusknoir opened its chest mouth ominously. The vortex began to pull everything surrounding them into its infinite depths.

One of the last words over the radio from Spear Pillar from William was, "Full ATTACK! ALL Safeties off guys! Guys? Oh, screw it!" Finally tossing the radio aside, William pulled out his Army issued revolver and began to fire it, howling incoherently. Everyone else attacked as well, firing their strongest moves at the abomination. Combined with the void of Prometheus, it almost seemed enough to stop Cyrus. But the creature absorbed the bullet fire, including from William's own revolver. To everyone's dismay, it stared at the projectiles and they suddenly were disassembled, combusting into dust, then molecules, and atoms and then nothing. Finally he turned his attention to the Dusknoir that tried to pull him in. He held out his hand-if you could call it a hand-and made a fist with it, causing Dusknoir's mouth to close in on itself and then almost sink to the ground in sheer agony.

"Insects! Do you not comprehend? Everything you know is coming to an end! All will succumb to Oblivion!" He said in an almost exhilarated, maddened screech. "How can you hope to defeat me? Your primitive, protein-based minds can't even comprehend the true power I control! And now, I will show you just how insignificant you all are before me!"

"Look!" Brock shouted out. "He's still holding the Red Chain!"

"Yes, thank you Captain Obvious," Timothy snarked. "It'd have been nice if you had **done something**!"

"Attack the chain!" William shouted frantically..

"Right. You heard the guy, Hiryuu! Dragon Rage!" Timothy commanded.

"Die!" Darius shouted, pulling out his gun and firing madly. Everyone else opened fire once more. Like before, however, the attack proved ineffectual.

The monster laughed malevolently, the Red chain jingling in its hold. Raising it up, the item began to crackle with energy. Then, like lightning, a bolt of energy shot out from it, fast as a laser, but louder than a bomb!

"Look out!" Brock pushed Timothy out of the way as it suddenly hit him full force, blowing a hole through his chest. It enveloped him with the sheer might of its terrible power, and then it arced, striking everything close to him. Not even Atrus, who'd already decided to flee, was safe from it, restrained by the power of this red chain.

I would tell you that this would be the end of the story, but this was not the demise of the party. No, this was the demise of humanity. Brock fell over at the sight of the hole in his chest.

To his surprise, the wound seemed to ooze and heal over. He would've thought that the creature had healed him until he beheld his limb, which seemed to soften and drip to the ground below, discoloring into a pale pink. The breeder screamed in horror at the realization that he was **melting!** What a horrible way to go!

"Graahhg! What..the hell is happening!" Darius dropped the pistol as the energy chain enveloped both him and Rumble. But panic soon gripped him as he noticed blue fur start to sprout all over his body and electricity began to spark on it. "No...not lightning! Please...anything but lightning!" If one could pay close attention, they'd see his face starting to push out into a muzzle of sorts belonging to an Electrike, and a shiny one at that, which seemed to frighten him even worse. The fur kept its rapid spread over his body, pushing out on the sides of his head with some yellow streaks on his nose and the sides of his head. A short tail made itself known as claws formed on his hands and poked out of the soles of his boots. Meanwhile, the Weavile next to him was...becoming more human? It seemed impossible, but the ice-type was growing to more humanoid proportions, though the changes to Rumble weren't quite as extreme.

The muzzle soon finished pushing out, his teeth altering themselves as the rest of his team burst out of their own Pokéballs and underwent a similar fate as Rumble. And it was finished, at least for him - he was now somehow a hybrid of human and Pokémon, and a type that scared him quite a bit, at that.

Timothy screamed out loud as his arms were bound by the red lightning. He could see grey fur growing on his arms and the rest of his body, and his pants and shorts fell off as he started to shrink. "N-no..." his voice whimpered out, like a small child. His jacket dangled as the rest of his body started to metamorphose, his bones painfully realigning and compressing. His face pulled out into a muzzle as his ears moved up and his sclera changed from white to yellow. His feet changed position to become digitigrade as his teeth sharpened. Lastly, he grew a tail. Unceremoniously, the new Poochyena anthro Pup was dropped on his behind. The Pokéballs on his belt all exploded and released the Pokémon, who all swiftly underwent the same transformation that had happened to Rumble the Weavile.

William was hit right in the chest, and he yelled in pain, pain he had never felt before, his uniform holding up for the moment as his ears began to grow and shift while his nose almost became small and insignificant. He felt his skin itching like mad, and he hoped for a moment that his radio was still transmitting. He felt a sudden pain in his pants and then he heard tearing and ripping as a tail sprouted from behind him as his hands became furry and clawed, while his boots were still for the moment intact. His feet were smaller, but still able to fit firmly in them.

Peter dropped to his knees as the light engulfed him. His skin began to harden as small yellow and brown hairs began to cover his body. "No! I'm not a coward!" he screamed to himself as he realized the species he was becoming. His ears grew large and triangular as his nose and mouth combined into a large muzzle. His body sectioned off with armor-like plates on his chest. His waist squeezed into a tiny brown midsection. A long tail burst out of the back of his pants.

His shoes exploded into large three toed feet. His body was covered with yellow armor-like plates. The Zbra morph shook his head as his mind expanded with new intellegence. Beside him his Dusknoir now stood with a human face and the body of a large man. His Pokéballs burst, releasing Ghost types of all sorts already anthropomorphized.

Atrus, even detained by the power of the red chain, tried to make his way down the stairs. As he gritted his teeth in frustration, he felt that there was something wrong with how that grinded against his mouth. He let out a cry of frustration, only to notice it sounded far less than human. It sounded, in fact, very rodent-like. He covered his twitching mouth with extending claws, to which he suddenly gasped in horror as his hands, no longer hands but paws, thickened and covered in white fur, purple fur spreading on his forearms. What was happening to him?

As his fear increased, he could feel the changes spreading faster. He could feel two long whiskers growing from his short muzzle, his ears enlarging into a circle-like shape. He could even feel a naked tail coming out of his pants. Stranger still, the body fat on him seemed to burn away, causing his clothes to sink and fall off him.

How dare the voice in his head mock him like this! After all the hard work he'd gone through to get where he was, it called him a rat? He was not a rat! He was not anything like a rat! This shriveling, rodent-like body could not be him. He let out another rat-like cry as the voice continued to torture him with the concept of how much of a rat he really was. Get out of my mind already, I would have said! But the rat man stopped struggling, finding that the body fat had been all burned away, reducing him to a shuddering Rattata morph in oversized clothes. He looked at himself with red eyes and came to accept that he was now a rat.

_No... Every time... Every time I have to save the world... can't someone else do it? Why is it always up to me?_ Ash wondered to himself as he started to get covered in Blue Fur. _My Life... My Life isn't completely under the control of destiny, is it?_, Ash's eyes changed to a deep red color and black fur sprouted on his face and hands. His shoes exploded as his feet turned into paws. Ash cried out as his face pulled out and his hands ripped through the gloves, "WHY! Why must I always do things just because of who I am!" he shouted as a tail sprouted. "I- I WON'T! I REFUSE!" Finally, his body broke out of the chain when his blue aura erupted around him for the first time in months. However, it was too late. His changes had already completed. His Pokéballs lay on the ground for a moment before breaking open for the final time, his Pokémon undergoing the same painful transformation as all the rest.

Misty screamed as a buzzing started in her head. "Not the bugs, please, not the bugs!" she screamed as her skin turned red and cream colored, hardening into a exoskeleton. Two large black horns grew out above her hair. Black spots covered her back. Another pair of insectoid arms burst out of her dress under her current arms which became more insectoid. Under her shell were long thin and delicate wings. Azurill cried even as she grew to the size of a three year old, her body lengthening as well as her legs and arms. Her hands, feet and head became more humanoid as she sat crying by her mother. Misty's Pokéballs released there captives instantly, the Water-types being horribly mutated and twisted as well.

Max felt himself lifted into the air. The boy struggled as his head puffed out into a large mushroom cap, and it covered up most of his upper torso. He could feel his body changing to a weird shape. He still had his arms, for some reason, but he was easily able to deduce that he was turning into some sort of creature based on Shroomish. His pants slipped off but he was still covered fairly well.  
May screamed hard, doubling over in pain as her head seemed to bubble up, two large red welts growing out either side of her forehead. Her eyes sank inward until all you could make out were her pupils. Her entire body turned a light shade of blue and became smooth and rubbery. Her hair receded inward as a third red welt developed on her forehead. Her mouth and nose sunk into her face and disappeared as the bottom of her head developed into a sort of frill. Underneath she developed a razor sharp beak. Two long tentacles grew out under the frill, waving around agitatedly. Her body began to broaden and thicken. Losing feminine traits, her chest shrunk and became flat. Though it couldn't be seen currently, other changes took place under her skirt, rendering her a male. Aside from these changes her body seemed mostly human, but as though she had a Tentacool stuck on her head.

Pikachu writhed out on the ground as his body started to grow, bones making cracking noises as they grew significantly, and his body becoming more proportioned for walking upright. His shout became a bit deeper sounding. His tail lengthened much like the rest of his body and his body became shaped much the same as Ash's was as a human.

Dawn felt itchy as brown and cream fur broke out all over her body. Her eyes became a deep brown as a black mask spread across them. Her hands and feet grew small claws as her ears extended into larger ones covered in tufts of brown fur. A short thick cylindrical tail burst out behind her as her face pulled into a muzzle. Her body, like May's broadened and thickened as she lost all feminine aspects, her chest flattening into muscled pecs as she became a male Zizagoon morph. "I'm…I'm hideous…" she, or rather, _he_ whispered in horror.

In time, the energy of the red chain went away, brief crackles of static faintly echoing, like a mad machine that had expended most of its power. What was left of the group collapsed to the floor, drained of all energy. That thing-I'm sorry, but I cannot describe it as anything else of this earth-looked at his work, and he gave a grunt as if to signify that what he'd done was good.

Mars and Jupiter were the first to rise up from the ground. Mars let out a complaining mewl when she suddenly had a look at herself, feeling her body in shock and realization. Jupiter let out a scream at the sight having a tail long enough to fold over her face. Both of them cried out to their leader, "Cyrus! What have you done to us?"

"Get used to it. Know how you, like your Pokémon, are the same to my eyes: paths to attain ultimate power! If you face me, you will perish as these insects shall!" Cyrus turned again to the Pokémorphs sprawled out on the floor still. "Now, in your despair and fear, take what you have learned into the abyss that awaits you and disappear!"

"You..." Ash said as he sat up, gritting his teeth.

"In Arceus's name, we'll stop you!" Peter said.

"Duly noted." Cyrus said placidly to Peter's remark. With that, Cyrus stomped his foot into the ground and something came rushing at them. Was it fire? Lightning? Shadow? Who could tell? The power was so incomprehensible; no one at the summit could grasp its true form.

"Can't...I just can't...I'm not going to die here!" Darius tried staggering to his feet, grabbing his fallen gun as he did so. If he would die, it would be on his feet.

Many of the Pokémorphs clutched to the ground, preparing for the end. Peter lifted his head high, accepting fate. Ash gasped, recognizing this transition.

"Damn it...killed by a nut like this...seems my luck ran out rather quick..." Darius had a grim smile on his face, but it had been a good life, without regrets. Suddenly, they felt something tugging at them from below. Hands of great multitude clutched at their limbs and bodies, dragging them down, the ground around them turning a dark ultraviolet.

"Agh! Let go! Let go! Mmmph!" Atrus struggled as he felt a hand cover his mouth, pulling him out of sight.

William shrieked and wept madly as he was dragged down into the darkness, kicking and screaming. His Pokémon team, some morphs and others not were struggling like him, feeling if they were to go down, they would take those they could of the enemy with them. Absolutely none of them took a single enemy with them.

"What is this force? This is not my power! Who dares interfere with oblivion? You can do nothing but hide from the inevitable, you worthless worms!" Cyrus's voice continued to tear at their souls through the hole but slowly it began to fade. The Pokémorphs soon found themselves falling through some black chasm, but not the type of falling where you would be crushed without a parachute, but rather floating, like a girl who once intruded into a rabbit hole.

The chasm was nothing but a pitch black until it began to glow and swirl with hues of violet, red and blue. In the colorful chasm below, something seemed to be drifting up to them. At first it was as small as a grain of sand, but then it was the size of a dinner plate, and the size of a merry-go-round some seconds later. As it continued to get bigger and bigger, new details unfolded. Mountain ranges and planes and lights. A city, perhaps? It seemed to be the only one that was visible.

There could be no appreciation for these details for none but your mad companion, the Narrator, for the party was unconscious, but I tell you what they were looking upon was a realm unlike any other! And as they floated down into the city like feathers, passed out and bruised, the entities that circled them and carried them to the great palace of black rising up from its center would introduce them to a familiar face.

"Ugh... Where am I?", Timothy said as he stirred awake some time later.

"Unngh...seems we're not dead..." Darius stirred next, though the change of setting was an immense shock for the Electrike morph. "But where...where are we?"

The Poochyena and Electrike bumped backs to one another, and they slowly turned around, bumping their noses. The Poochyena looked in nervousness at the great giant of an Electrike morph staring down at him. The Electrike cocked an eyebrow, staring down at the Poochyena's shirt. Though the cold polished floor of bones was puzzling enough, that did not seem as important as the question in both their minds.

"What the hell happened to us, and where are we? And for that matter, who are you?" With all of the changes, the young...Poochyena morph in front of him could've been anyone out of the group, not to mention the very surroundings seemed...unusual.

"I- I'm Timothy," the Poochyena managed to speak. "Who are you, Mr. Electrike?"

"You can't be him...he was older than I am. I'm Darius - you know, the merc that you guys had tagging along?" Rumble still seemed to be out cold, though.

"Yeah... I thought you were afraid of Electricity," Timothy said.

"Don't...remind me. It's hard enough dealing with this already." Darius's voice wavered at the mention of electricity. If he didn't think about it, perhaps he'd be able to make it through what was going on at the moment.

As the other morphs began to stir, they had a look around. The architecture around them seemed to be of carved stone, ancient, mortifying and terrifying. All around them, wisps of strange ghostly light lit the antechamber, highlighting it an eerie lavender. All but the end of the room seemed to be dark, strangely. What was there?

"What's wrong Prometheus?" Peter asked as he noticed the agitated ghost.

"There's someone here, the energy feels familiar, almost motherly," the Dusknoir said.

"Something.. something about this place is familiar," Ash noted.

Dawn quietly agreed, but didn't want anyone to notice anything was up with her-him.

"WAAAAAH!" Anyone awake already turned back and saw Atrus screeching at the top of his lungs, covering his naked body as he looked at his paws. "My hands! I don't have hands anymore! My face! What's happened to me?"

"The same thing that happened to all of us!" Darius whirled around and snapped at Atrus with more than a hint of irritation in his voice.

Max squinted. His glasses were gone - and even if they weren't, his head wasn't a good size for them, so he was having trouble seeing. That didn't mean he wasn't aware of what was happening.

"Oh, god! Oh, god, I'm a rat! I can't believe it! He turned me into a rat!" He crawled on his knees and grabbed at Darius' shirt. "It can't be real! I'm not a rat, I'm a man!"

Darius grabbed a hold of one of Atrus's arms and held them still, growling in frustration. "In case you haven't noticed, we've **all** got problems."

"You're telling us, boss," a cool, female voice came from the left - it was Garazzo, who aside from a minor addition to her chest and a slightly different torso, hadn't changed all that much.

Kamesama trudged over to his trainer, "Do you want me to help you up, master?"

Timothy blinked. "Ah...Kamesama? Did you just-?"

"-Talk like a human?" Charlie, Timothy's Charizard finished, before realizing he had done so as well.

"We should go forward," Peter said. "After all, we're either dead or saved."

"We can't stay here. I don't think any of us knows where we are, and I'd rather not be taken by surprise." Soon, the other members of Darius's team had joined them, and for the most part, their bodies were just slightly more humanoid, as many hadn't had that far to go to begin with.

"I can't go anywhere." Atrus squeaked. "My clothes are gone."  
"They will do you no good now, sir. Those clothes were dragging at your body all the way," an oddly familiar voice said. Atrus felt several arms pull him onto his feet. When he turned around he saw what seemed to be a humanoid of rock staring at him with a stern but faithful grin on his face. He knew that face, but it couldn't be.

"Greggle?" Atrus whispered.

"At your service, sir. And it's about time between me and Aegis to say you should learn not to talk too much." Greggle brushed the dirt off his fur. Atrus frowned silently at his Pokémon's lack of restraint. He felt it was better if he didn't know what his Pokémon would say about him. "Don't frown at me like that, sir. I mean no offense to you. Of course, I think the change has been an improvement to you." The Golem poked at the Rattata's stomach. "You look like you're 20 again."

Atrus clutched at his stomach, feeling it churn. "I'm starving."

Ash turned to Misty, and noticed she didn't seem in the mood to move. "Misty?" Misty seemed to squeak, but was quiet besides that. "Guys, I- I don't think Misty's in the mood to move," Ash said worriedly.

Gyarados, now nagalike in form, reached down and picked up his mistress gingerly. Ash smiled at him gratefully. "Daddy?" there was a tugging on ash's jacket. Azurill looked up to him with big sweet eyes. "Is mommy going to be okay?"

Ash gulped. "I... I think she'll be alright in time, sweethart."

Aegis, now a Bastiodon morph, picked up a pile of amorphous goo and carried it over to Atrus. "Sir, look at this. I think it's edible."

Greggle poked at it, watching it jiggle. "What is it? A pound of chewed bubble gum?"

"Umm...I think that might be that gym leader...Rock or Brock or something." This response game from Devastator - the Tyranitar had been standing close to the man when he had changed, and remembered him...melting or something.

"...I think he's gone into a nervous breakdown," Max noted.

The goo suddenly seemed to ooze and jump up, falling too the ground. Slowly something began to take shape from the goo. It was indistinguishable at first, but it seemed to be a person of some kind. It made several failed attempts and broke down into the slime, but slowly the blob took dimension and shape, becoming very much an androgynous human, quietly trying to feel its face and hands.

"I think 'e's a ditto," Timothy added.

"I'd suggest slapping him, but given his form...I doubt it would work." Darius shrugged helplessly at this - he didn't really know how to work with handling Dittos, much less ones that had been human at one point.

The ditto morph looked blankly at Darius, then at Ash and the others, and then stared into his hands and body. And then he wept, pink tears of slime rolling down his face.

A blue light surrounded the Ditto and lifted him off the ground. A uniformed Dusknoir approached them. "She will see you now. If you will please follow me?" he said gesturing down the hall.

"She?" Ash asked.

"Who are you talking about?" Darius asked.

"My lady. She wishes to remain quiet until you see her yourself," he said.

"You didn't answer my question. Who is your employer?" Darius looked at the ghost with annoyance. Given what had just happened, he wasn't going anywhere without some form of explanation.

"Umm... Darius, he just said she didn't want herself known until we see her," Max said.

"She feels that if I tell you it would ruin 'ze presentation ze magnifique' as the royal consort puts it," the Dusknoir said.

"Given that the last being with powers like that tried to kill us, can you blame me for being wary? But, all right, I will follow along for now. Guys, let's see what's going on." With a nod, the rest of his team fell in alongside him - friends and coworkers at the same time in a sense.

The Dusknoir nodded and lead them down the path. They could now see more Dusknoirs standing to attention on the left side of the chamber and huge Golurks lining the right.

Atrus whimpered at all the eyes staring at him, covering his groin with his paws. Tail tucked in between his legs, he slowly hobbled with his head hung low, walking ahead of the group. Like gallant bodyguards, Aegis and Greggle were close behind. Pikachu followed the group, trying to hide behind Ash to hide his nakedness, for some reason.

"If it pleases you…" the Dusknoir raised his hand and both Pikachu and Atrus were covered in the illusion of clothing.

Atrus jumped back, seeing the set of clothes placed around him. "W-What?"

Pikachu blinked, "Huh? How did you...?"

"How about us too? Kinda feel a bit of a draft here," Rumble was the next to speak after noticing those who were naked suddenly gain clothing of some sort on their bodies. It was odd - the Weavile hadn't cared about it before, but it seemed really important now.

"It's not real," Pikachu spoke up. "It just looks like it is."

"So long as I don't look naked, it's fine with me," Devastator said.

"Don't care if it's real or not - I want to be covered up. And boss…we're in waaaay over our heads here," Rumble said.

As he looked at the guards, Darius gulped loudly. "I think you're right, Rumble...we're dealing with crap way over our pay grade here..."

"Pay pay pay... is that **all** you think about!" Timothy said to Darius, raising his voice.

"It was a figure of speech, Timothy." Darius rolled his eyes in response.

The Dusknoir rolled his eyes and made clothes for everyone else as well, privately thinking they were all being rather picky.

They approached the end of the room, a massive set of doors. The guards for the gate where positively enormous intimidating even the dark types.

You may think that I had forgotten someone. No, he was just late in getting up. William woke up slowly and blinked as he saw the group already moving away. He noticed his team or rather humanoid version of his team were all around him. He looked once at the retreating group before moving to rousing his team mates, wondering why they were leaving him in this odd room. "Come on, come on Revilee sounded already," he whispered, shaking his team by the shoulder, trying his best to not arouse anything's ire.

A few moments later he was able to rouse his team, all morphs now. Finding his rucksack missing, he grumbled but shook the cobwebs out of his teams' heads, clearing their minds.  
It was then that he felt confident, and as his team were trained in moving, began to rush after the others. He was trying to piece what had happened together but for now he needed to see what this group of other humanoid Pokémon were like, and maybe get clothing for his team.

"That you, William? What took you so long?" Atrus asked as he saw a sentret run up to the group.

"He was still knocked out when we got up," Pikachu noted.

"Glad to see you're still among the living there, Will." Darius grinned a little - they'd all apparently survived...if they were alive now, that is.

"Yeah, I'm still alive." he growled to Darius. "No thanks to any of you checking to make sure I was alive. You left me there! You I had hoped would have been better!"

"Eh," Darius said indifferently. Nobody else seemed particularly concerned either.

"If we are finished with these interruptions, may we please proceed?" the Dusknoir asked in annoyance.

"Why should we? Who put you in charge?" William demanded.

The Dusknoir responded by telekinetically lifting William up and hurling him all the way back to the other side of the room. "My lady, who can send you plummeting into a never-ending nightmare of screaming and agony and darkness if you speak that way to her," he said warningly.

"Duly noted," William said faintly.

After William made his way over to them—again-the Dusknoir led them through the gates and into a massive throne room. A white pathway of polished bone topped with a skin rug lead to a platform. Sitting atop the platform, on a throne carved from the assembled bones of many different creatures-most noticeably the back made from a Mamoswine spine-sat a great Giratina Pokémorph, taller than any creature they had ever seen. She towered over them as a Goddess would, staring down at their flesh, bone, blood and soul with those red eyes, wings of shadow stretching from wall to wall. Sitting at her side in a golden chair with one arm wrapped around her body was a very beautiful Chandelure Morph gallantly dressed in one of the most shimmering dresses they had ever seen. What may have been her hair once burned in a mane, forming the shape of four bulbous knots.

The Giratina's arms withdrew, all four of them resting on her body as she stood up in her throne. "Well, well! Look who's finally decided to return to the realm of the living. Or should I say the realm of the dead?" Her voice boomed and reverberated around the room.

"My lady," several voices said as Peter and his Pokémon knelt before her.

"No way...Giratina? I never thought I'd see a legendary like this..." Darius and his team were awe-struck at the sight.

The legendary scowled. "Ash…you have changed the most since I last saw you. To think that I'd have lived this long to meet you again, face to face."

"Yeah... I didn't think it'd be like this," Ash said, putting his hand behind his head.

"Oui, 'e 'as changed, non? It 'as been a long time since ze child who made ze counter-shield last graced my gym," the Chandelure said.

Atrus blinked. "Do you two know each other?"

William looked at the creature with awe and horror, fearful that she would snuff them out like Cryus had tried an untold time before. He just remained silent, watching what was unfolding.

"Fantina?" Ash asked in amazement.

"Oui," she said.

"No, it can't be!" Atrus gasped. "Cyrus cursed you too!"

"The ghost-type gym leader? What the hell is going on?" Things were rapidly making less and less sense to Darius.

"This is not a curse." The Giratina knelt down to speak to their level, prodding the Rattata. "I brought her here as an act of mercy. Here, in the City of Styx, we are no longer creatures of madness. We can live here without fear of the power of that man."

Atrus narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?"

The giant's eyes shifted to Ash and Misty. "They should know me."

"I think... Agitha? The one who temporarily took over the Viridian City Gym?" Ash guessed.

"Such a bright boy non? Eez it any wonder why 'e iz ze chosen one, me amore?" Fantina squealed, turning to Giratina. Ash winced at the reference to his title.

"Wait a moment...she is now one of the most powerful beings around? That's incredible...and fitting." Darius nodded in respect to the Giratina - he'd fought Agatha before, and she was one of the toughest trainers he'd ever faced.

"You recognize me behind this mask. That pleases me." Agatha stood back up and returned to her throne. "Do you know why you're here?"

"I'm guessing you had something to do with saving our hides back there." This time, it was Garazzo who spoke to the former Elite Four member.

Ash sighed. "...I'm going to have to save the world again, aren't I?"

"Oui, zere are circumstances zat warrant your actions, Ash," Fantina said. "But you shall not be alone zis time."

"I guess that makes me feel a bit better," Ash said dubiously.

The little Poochyena looked up. "So, I'm guessing something really bad happened to the world since Cyrus got a hold of the red chain?"

Agatha swirled her four talons together, two creating a Shadow Ball and the other two waving around it. It was large enough for all the Pokémorphs there to look into.

What they saw first was a random town that was suddenly demolished in an upheaval of rock and fissures. Water poured in and flushed out the remains, to which a young forest rose to the point of choking itself before a volcanic fissure erupted and burned it all, sending the ashes back into the earth as the cycle repeated itself. "This is what has become of the world as you know it," Agatha said plaintively. "When Cyrus unleashed the power of the Red Chain, the world followed soon after. Much of what you once knew is gone. The world is shadowed by a great Twilight. The very particles tingle in despair as the elements war with each other for control."

They all stared at the image in horror and despair. "Surely there is some way to stop him!" Peter said uncertainly.

"This is...horrifying. If we're supposed to save the world...how can we do it? We're not gods, or legendaries. Hell...I'm afraid of my own type!" Darius said.

"What's there to be afraid of?" Pikachu asked, somewhat offended.

"Lightning terrifies me...it always has since I was a kid. Why do you think I don't have any electric-types on me?" Darius looked over at the electric mouse with a worried look on his face - he'd seen what Pikachu did to those who annoyed it.

"There are lots of people who don't have Electric-types that aren't afraid of lightning. How were we supposed to figure that out?" May asked.

"Well…at least I wasn't turned into a guy!" Darius shouted angrily. He immediately regretted it when May burst into tears and all her friends glared at him.

Ignoring the comments, Giratina then conjured another image of an overhead view of a great city of alien and terrifying structures covered in strange writing. "What Cyrus's chaos has not destroyed has been twisted into Dead Cities-Necropolises immortalizing the glory of infinity and oblivion. Everyone that dwells in between these and the Primal Lands has gone mad."

"No..." Max muttered.

The reality slowly began to sink in for Atrus. He stared at the bones, almost reminded of the people who most likely had died in the mines. "All gone? My house? My possessions? Everything?"

"Without a doubt, sir," Aegis said.

"My iron stoves, my dressers...everything I worked so hard for..." Atrus stammered.

"All gone, sir," Greggle said

Aegis and Greggle patted his shoulders in consolation. Atrus shook them off and wandered away from the group, not saying another word, tail hanging limply. "Wait for us, sir!" Greggle and Aegis lumbered off after the rat.

"I-impossible...Snowpoint...is gone?" Rumble fell to his knees - Snowpoint, or close to it, had been where the Weavile, then a Sneasel, had been caught - Darius's first Pokémon.

Darius, on the other hand, looked at the images and shook his head helplessly "This is...I have no words..."

"What about the Snowpoint Temple? Did Regigigas wake up in time to defend it?" Peter asked.

"I'll get to that in a moment." Agatha said in an agitated tone. "There is no reason to despair. If Cyrus's chaos had truly won, there'd be nothing left of the world as it would be merely dust in the void of space. In the madness that rocked the planet, Legendary Pokémon from around the world came together and created Good Lands for the survivors."

The images then shifted to display sprawling green countrysides and quaint villages. "Lands of good tilled earth where there was no corruption in the waters they drank nor in the air they breathed. Slowly, parts of the world are recovering from this holocaust." While most of them sighed in relief at this news, Atrus, however, stood still in the back, accompanied by his companions.

"So...it's not totally gone. That relieves me more than you'll ever know," Darius said.

Ash looked up from consoling Misty, "You're making it sound like we've been here for months... have we?"

"Oui," Fantina spoke up. "Almost three months."

"We've been out cold for three months? How have we not withered away?" Darius asked in disbelief.

"Time flows differently down here," Fantina said. "You have been out for, 'ow you say, a week in here. Zat is equivalent to almost three months zere."

"But that is not important now," Agatha said. "I've brought you here to let you know that you have a part to play in a great and courageous role that will restore order to this world and stop what Cyrus has done to the world. To that end, I saved your lives when he was going to vaporize you."

"I see...", Ash said, "What about our hometowns? Pallet, Cerulean, Pewter, Petalburg and Twinleaf?"

"And Black City..what happened to it?" Darius asked.

"Would you like to see for yourselves?" Agatha asked.

Ash reluctantly nodded his head. Darius slowly nodded as well - fear was gnawing at his stomach, but he needed to know. William remained silent, already feeling his place of birth's fate. He was born on a Unavoa base, and so more than likely it was gone.

"I have the power to take you wherever you wish. But it will only work once. At that point, you're on your own." Agatha placed her claws together. "I cannot leave this dimension, you see. Your place is not with the dead. You must go back to your own lands and restore order."

"But mi amour, zey are exhausted and likely to be 'ungry," Fantina pointed out. "Let zem choose in ze morning, surely we can provide zem wiz a meal and rest?"

Agatha looked to the Chandelure and nodded. "Yes, of course. Show them to the banquet hall."

Fantina rose into the air and floated down the stairs towards them. "If you would please follow me, I will see zat you are looked after properly."

"Madam Agatha? I appreciate the kindness…and thank you for saving our lives." Darius rubbed his stomach out of hunger - but he was going to at least thank her for saving them.

Fantina winked at Agatha "See you tonight, mi amour," she said before leading them away.

Aegis and Greggle carried Atrus by his arms, seeing he was unwilling to move. "Did you hear that sir? Food!" Greggle said.

"Yes, lots of food!" Aegis enthused.

"Come on, Aegis! Faster! We can't keep him hungry!" Greggle said.

"Why don't you do a rock polish yourself, Greggle?" Aegis said. Timothy sweatdropped as he watched their antics. He wasn't sure whether or not to be reassured that even in this horrible new world, basic stupidity still existed.

And that, my insane friend, is how the world came to be as it was. There is more to the tale, but surely you are wrought with sorrow over this news? No? By the turning of that page, I can see you want more. Very well. By the next chapter, you will truly see the start of this epic journey.


	28. All Hallows' Eve

All Hallows' EveDisclaimer: We do not own anything referenced in this story. They are owned by their respective… ah… owners… wow, that sounded better in my Note: This story is a collaboration between Ryu The Weredragon, tazkol master of emeralds, Vulpixtrainer, Omnikitsune, Rainbowdragon, and Thronezwei. Have a Happy Halloween, everyone!

* * *

October 31st. All Hallows' Eve, better known as Halloween to the populace.

Ash Ketchum was heading to a Halloween Party that was going to be held in a newly renovated mansion.

A Contest was also being held - the person or people who were left when the party ended, gets to keep the Mansion.

Ash was traveling silently and awkwardly with Misty. They both had coincidentally chosen the same costume. It resembled a Buizel, but at the same time, wasn't quite.

"Hello young man" an voice said the sound of it carried years of wisdom and experience.

"Hello Agatha," Ash said.

"And nice to see you, Misty" the old women nodded.

"Thank you, ma'am" Misty said

"Are you too finally together?" she asked

"WH-WHAT!", Ash asked.

"He's not my boyfriend" Misty exclaimed.

"Anyway great you made it, a little late but your here"

"Ah... Sorry...", Ash said, "I really didn't know where this place was."

"I _told_ you we should have asked someone" Misty said.

"Well, enjoy yourselves" Agatha said turning to leave.

"Who's the Grimer?" Misty asked, as she saw a pair of people in a strange brown costume that was pretty unidentifiable.

"Hey! It's not a Grimer! Can't you tell? It's obviously a Zebstrika!", the person in the front of the costume protested.

"I told you, Akira, it's as obvious as an Atari 2600 sprite," The person in the back grumbled.

"Okay, that was sad…" Misty said

"Team Rocket Sad, or just normal Sad?", Ash asked.

"Team Rocket can make a better costume you have to give them that."

"Yeah, that's true."

A thunk and a clunk later and a figure walked up to the two trainers. He was decked from head to toe in what looked like little pieces of metal and shimmering silver fabric. A large spherical mask with two giant green eyes and a tiny red antenna faced them. The figure quickly reached up and pulled off its head to reveal a smiling trainer with dirty blonde hair and sea blue eyes.

"Oh, hello there! Haven't seen you around before. Did you just get here?"

Ash rubbed the back of his head, "Uh... yeah. I'm Ash Ketchum, and this is Misty."

"Hello" Misty said

"Nice to meetcha', the name's Connor, but most folks like to call me Omni. Say ... aren't you the guy who was climbing that tower when that weird crystal thing happened a while back?"

"Yeah.. that's me..."

"Wow, talk about brave. It was nice meeting you Ash. And if my sources are correct," he said, turning to Misty, "aren't you supposed to be the Cerulean City Gym Leader? People tell me you're pretty tough. Think you and I could battle some time? Water Pokemon are a specialty of mine too."

"Sure" Misty said, "Anytime"

"Cool. I hope you two have fun together, I'm gonna' see if I can't find a few of my friends around here. We agreed we'd meet up near the buffet table. It was nice meeting you!" With another bright smile, the trainer shoved his helmet/mask back on his head and melted back into the crowd.

Misty turned to look around the room at all the assembled trainers and people. "Wow, everyone must be here!"

"Come on, admit it the costume is awesome" one trainer currently dressed in a anthro Lucario suit and wearing a maids outfit said to his companion who was dressed in a tux with a pompom.

"Who's yours or mine?", The pompom wearing person said. It was actually a bit more than that, it had long ears as well, similar to a Bunneary, but not quite, and some very tawny fur.

"Mine," the Lucario said. and he had a point the suit seemed to be skin tight almost with a fine layer of realistic blue fur.

"I- I guess?", the Tuxed kid said, "I- I just think-"

"What?"

"It makes me uncomfortable that you're dressing as a girl, okay?", Upon closer inspection, the tuxedo had a pair of wings on it, "Taze, this is the third Halloween in a row that you've done this! I'm starting to get suspicious."

"Hey, the first time I lost a bet...To you" he pointed out, "the second time was a dare, also from you"

"And this time?"

"This time it was funny"

The Tux clad boy rolled his eyes, "Anyway, we should catch up to Conner."

"Yeah, lets go"

A few moments later, a man dressed all in black with a black full brimmed hat hanging from his neck walked from another part of the mansion, his face covered in a black mask. He moves towards the buffet table. Under his breath he is humming an old, as in a very old Zorro theme. On his upper lip is penciled in a pencil thin mustache. At his side is a rapier.

He moves aside however at seeing Misty in line. "After you, Señorita."

"uh thanks" misty said

"No problem, Señorita."

He swishes his cap as he walks away, "Ah, my good friend how are you doing?" he calls off on seeing someone he knows, before turning back to Misty, "you enjoy the rest of your evening Señorita."

Ash unknowingly gave a slight glare.

Another person came buy, wearing a strange canine fursuit, but it oddly had horns in the place of ears. It wasn't like any canine Pokémon Ash had ever seen.

"Humans are so neat when they celebrate" a Mismagius said as she looked down invisibly.

High above the laughter and merriment of the room, two glistening eyes watched unnoticed, glaring at all the uninvited guests. "Stupid humans, coming here and ruining our home! It makes me wanna wreak some havoc!"

"Oh, come on. They haven't even done anything worth getting mad about!", Gengar said, "It's just a party and a contest to see who'll own the house. And you've been complaining about being bored because nobody lives here anymore!"

"i say let them have fun" the Mismagius said.

Sableye grumbled in acknowledgement. In truth, he was itching to cause some mischief and just looking for an excuse. And haunting humans always was fun. "I suppose I could wait until the new humans move in. But can't we at least cause a few mishaps here or there for the fun of it? It is THAT time of year after all."

"Well...", Gengar started to cave a little, but then shook it off, "No. The party's just getting started. Let them have their fun first."

"Yes, let them have their fun"

"Hmph! Fine. I'm going to see if i can't find some malice and ill content somewhere. All this joviality is making me sick," The Sableye faded away as he floated away from the glowing atmosphere in search of more of one more fitting his style.

"One day I'm going to get my revenge on May" Harley said to himself as he looked over the buffet table.

Paul just leaned back in a corner of the main room. "what a waste of time, I could be out catching powerful pokemon."

Despite Paul's complaining he was dressed up for the occasion, wearing some sort of dog suit that looked very intimidating and powerful.

He sighed and decided to see what food was there.

He moved and smirked. "Nice costume." he spoke toward Harley. "Cacturne?", his tone of voice showing he was making a snide comment.

"And who are you, broody McBulldog?"

"Harley" Harley half shouted, "so what makes you better then everyone else here?"

{Oooooh, hostility!} The sableye made a beeline for the two trainers, careful to remain unseen.

"Because I am. I am a Pokemon Trainer."

"so am i numbskull" Harley said

"Really? Then what gym badges do you have?" he had a glint in his eyes as if he knew something.

Harley couldn't answer at first. "about as many ribbons as you have"

"I don't have any ribbons. I do not show off my Pokemon like some sort of beauty pageant."

"'cause you don't have the skill"

{Oooooohhhh, smack talk, I am loving this!}

"Skills? what Skills do you need for a contest? You need skills, strength, Power, and a tactic to win a battle, no so in a contest where you make your battle moves, pretty." the last word was said in a false girly tone of voice.

"Let's take this outside, purple boy" Harley shouted

"Purple boy? Look who's talking greeny."

"Let's go"

Paul only shrugged. "Your loss."Harley angrily marched outside, "Come on, the graveyard has enough room",

Paul threw up his hands. "Fine, I don't want any more arguing. he ignored a slight uneasy feeling about this. "You are one whiny person you know that?"

"And you're an asshole", Harley shouted

"Did they just say graveyard?" Sableye suddenly looked a little more worried. He'd better tell the others about this.

"Fine fine," Paul argued, "Just pick your Pokemon already."

Harley took his position across from Paul. "A one on one battle, i pick Cacturn" Harley released his cactus pokemon.

"Magmortar Stand by for battle." He called out tossing the pokeball out into the field, "No large scale attacks, I rather not pay property damage to the new owners of this place if you don't mind."

"Cacturn, Hyper Beam", Harley shouted as the cactus released the giant energy beam capable of horrendus property damage.

Paul stepped back in horror. "Did you even listen to me? Magmortar take the attack."

Magmortar had exactly two seconds to give Paul a 'you got to be kidding me' look before the attack hit him sending him flying and causing horrendous pain.

"See? SEE?" Sableye gesticulated at the two battlers, his gewel like eyes bugging out.

"...", Gengar could say nothing, clenching his hands into a fist as he watched what was going on.

The Mismagius nearly cried as she watched.

"Paul grimaced. "Nice going on this, destroyed a graveyard, making noise to wake the dead, and ignoring common sense." He growled a little. "Me and my pride." He whispered before recalling Magmortar who was still standing from the attack. "you did well, but the battle is over." he turned and walked away ignoring anything Harley would have to say.

The Sableye was trembling now. "Those humans -" His eyes were gleaming red in his anger now.

The Mismagius floated over to the grave stone that had been destroyed in the battle. crying as she looked down upon it.

"...You've made your point, Sableye," Gengar said, his voice completely devoid of emotion.

The Mismagius for one didn't bicker with the Sableye she just floated there crying. The name on the gravestone destroyed. She could feel her life becoming an even dimmer memory.

The Sableye approached the Mismagius and uncharacteristically, put a claw around her shoulder to comfort her.

Gengar looked up, it's eyes glowing redder than they ever have before.

"My life is gone," the Mismagius cried. "What was my name? Did i have children? Was i married? Where is my life?"

"Don't worry... we'll make them pay," Gengar said, his voice still dead even.

"No blood, Gengar" she said through the tears. "Please, no blood"

The Sableye though he could not remember much of his own life, held her all the closer. "No ... we will do far worse. I promise, we will not shed blood, but the humans will pay." A purple aura was starting to surround the pokemon as the full moon began to shine. "Dearly."

Wiping her tears the Mismagius raised her head. her hat bagn to shine with ancient runes of powers unknown to anyone present. "So let it be..."

Somewhere in the background a grandfather clock dinged the hour. Only unlike most times, instead of one ring,

it rang thirteen times.

"Well... That's ominous," Timothy, the trainer wearing the tuxedo, said.

El Zorro blinked and looked at the clock. "Indeed, Thirteen times? Did a latch break?" he began to look at it all over the place.

"The witching hour is upon us", The Mismagius said her eye's now glowing purple as more runes appeared.

"Some people say the thirteenth hour is when all the ghouls and goblins come out" Taze joked.

"I'm sure it's nothing," Cilan said, dressed up as his Premium Brand, Pansage, "They probably set it up to do that for the contest."

"That sounds about right," Brock nodded, dressed up in a costume that resembled a Vulpix.

"I sure hope not." came El Zorro's voice. "Looks like an authentic Turn of the Century Grandfather clock, it would be a defacing value let alone an affront to the history of..." he trailed off.

"Why did I lose that bet with my brother?" he grumbled before going off for more water, hiding the fact he was sweating a lot.

* * *

Invisibly, the Mismagius stalked Harley, even his Cacturne was unable to see her as she followed them until they where outside of the group alone in one of the rooms. As soon as there was no one else around blue glowing runes surrounded the door. sealing it shut.

Harley just stared at the glowing blue runes on the door without really caring too much. "Hmmm, they really did put a lot of effort into these special effects." Harley said, unfazed, "Still, it is rather pathetic. I thought it would be much scarier than this. It is supposed to be a haunted house after all."

"HELLO MORTAL," the voice seemed to come out of pure horror as the sound made Harley want to scream.

Harley pulled a James, though he didn't realize he was stealing a copyrighted stance. However he managed to keep his cool and not scream ... barely. "N-n-nice voice A-a-Agatha." He said, the trembling happening despite his best efforts. "Wh-what's next?"

Harley's Cacturne tapped his shoulder trying to warn him.

"Wh-wh-what is it Cacturne?" Harley said, jumping a little with his Pokémon companion's touch. "I-i-i'm not scared!" He said, though he clearly wasn't fooling anyone.

"TONIGHT YOU HAVE COMMITTED A CRIME FOR WHICH ALL YOUR COMPANIONS SHALL PAY ALONG WITH YOU" the voice said

"C-c-cacturne! Desert Storm!" The trainer commanded of his Pokémon. He was scared out of his wits and he wanted cover to run from whatever this was. He didn't care if it was fake or what damages it would cause. He just wanted to save his own skin.

"Cacturn Quick, this way!" Our intrepid hero or should I say pathetic coward, was running for the window that stood nearby, preparing to smash through it to escape the voice. The windows vanished replaching with solid brick.

Harley had about a second for his mouth to drop and his face to show the typical anime style of shock before he smashed into the bricks head-on. When he fell to the ground, stars were circling his head and he seemed suddenly much calmer with his surroundings. "Y-y-yesh ... murherr." He slurred as his head spun in confusion.

"TIME TO ACCEPT YOUR FATE MORTAL", the voice shouted as the sand storm dissipated

"Okayyy ..." Harley was still a bit out of it. Though that would sure change soon enough.

Harley's costumed tightened around his body, becoming flawless second skin. for a few seconds it seemed like he was unable to breath. Finally he could breathe agian after what seemed like too long. his body started to feel different as his blood was replaced by water and chloryleplasts.

"Ooooohhhh my ... Cack was weird." My Turn feels so strange." Harley was starting to come around now but as he looked at his suit he still thought everything was normal. "Hey Cacturne... what's wrong?"

there was a sickening disruption in his mid section as his organs where either replaced or simply dissolved. heart and lungs vanished as he started to breath through his skin.

As Harley was speaking, his voice violently cracked and suddenly his lovely baritone shifted upwards towards a contralto. "Wh-What the *cough* What's happening?" He ... more she now, was practically squealing by the end of that sentence as the rapidly changing human noticed the sudden changes and no need for breathing anymore. It wasn't so much he didn't have lungs anymore, but that his breathing was different. He could feel the carbon dioxide being taken in and the fresh oxygen leaving his, now her body. "I DEMAND to know what's going TURN Here!" Harley nearly bludgeoned herself with her changing hands and arms as she tried to cover her mouth in shock she had just spoken like a Pokemon.

Harley's eye's sunk in leaving the dark orange eye's of a Cacturne as her lips vanished and her mouth melt into a vent of black holes.

Cacturne turned to the new Harley not sure how to react to the new female. She was attractive for there species but this had been his friend.

"Cacturne?" he kept looking at her longingly.

Finally instinct overrode sense as he grabbed the female bridal style and turned to the newly reappeared windows.

"NOOOOOOOoooooOOOOO!" Harley's cry of misery and woe shook the Zubat from the trees and made them screech and fly into the night. Though all the party crowd heard was a very loud cry from a Cacturne. Strange, but not unheard of with all the trainers around. Cacturne jumped, braking through the window as he hauled his new mate away, to find a place to make a den.

The Mismagius sighed both in satisfaction and self disappointment as as she left the room. the runes vanishing from the door.

* * *

Paul had moved to the basement, because, well he was bored and he didn't want to be around the people when they found the graveyard in shambles. "what was that idiot thinking? There better not be ghost Pokemon connected, no reasoning, No matter, tomorrow I will be the one the challenge Ash to a rematch, he will be surprised that is for sure."

The door slammed behind him. A voice snorted, "No chance of that."

Paul jumped a little. "Electivire stand by for Battle." he called out with worry in his voice. "Hey, I told him to not hurt the stones." he called out in defense of himself.

"You still battled to begin with," the Ghost, now clearly a Gengar, said.

"He got on my nerves."

"You COULD have walked away. You COULD have been the better person," the Ghost scolded, "And now, you will pay the price."

Paul snorted. "Oh, well we all have our pride, I would not have some green wearing dork get the better of me." He cross his arms, showing he was not thinking him as part of the problem.

Suddenly, the fake, spiked collar turned into a real leather collar and clamped around Paul's neck.

"What?" he gasped as he felt something clamp around his neck on instinct really he reached for the collar.

Suddenly, he couldn't feel his face for a moment, and then in the next, the mask he wore WAS his face. He wasn't sure how he knew, but it was.

"This is bad." Paul muttered

"You have no idea," the Gengar said with his wide trademark grin.

The soft clothing began to harden into leather armor, and his pants into chain mail shorts.

Paul just remained silent in shock as he saw the changes

The rest of Paul's skin began to become covered in tight blue fur, much like the bits that had been covered up in the costume. Paul's mind began to wander... and got... got... what?

"What was he doing here? Wasn't where was he patrol route? and wasn't he suppose to look out for a boy in green or? He looked at his team that were out of their pokeballs with pleading in his eyes. "help me." he whispered.

"I think I"ll leave you down here for a while to get acquainted. Plus I don't want there to be too much of a panic. Not yet, anyway."

Paul just gulped a little in fear of this new dungeon

"Maybe, if we're in a better mood, we'll send you home when we're done," the Gengar said, before fading out and laughing.

The Moblin sat there, surrounded by creatures that he didn't recognize.

* * *

"Dis place is loaded with Pokémon and other tings up fer grabs," Meowth, dressed as a human boy about Max's age, stated to his companions, "All 'da gym leaders, elites and frontier brains, all in one place!"

James looked a little worried. "But aren't they all strong Pokemon? what about the Twerps?"

"They're all preoccupied with d'ere party, Jimmy-boy!", Meowth said to the Growlithe-dressed man.

"I still don't like this, if we make a wrong move, we'll all be blasting off."

"Grow a spine, James" Jessie said dressed as a Snivy despite the fact that her hair clashed badly. she swatted James with her fan. "think about what this could mean?"

"Yeah, us landing miles away in the forest."

{Hmmmmm, these humans really piss me off with their squabbling ... and something else about them upsets me. I think I'll make them my first victims.} The Sableye said to himself, grinning maliciously. {But first thing's first, getting them away from the party.} With that thought in mind, the Sableye dashed towards the Meowth unseen and entered the creature. Meowth shuddered from the impact and his eyes were momentarily blank before blinking, they refocused.

It was strange looking through living eyes again, but the Meowth was approximately his height already, so it wasn't such a big deal and fortunately this body was used to walking on two legs instead of all fours.

"Uh, Meowth, are you okay? You kind of just spaced out."

"Fine. Just fine."

The meowth turned to the two humans in question, his eyes seemed purple now instead of their usual red, but in the dimmer lighting it was hard to tell. "Yeah yeah, I'm fine. Now let's get us some treasure fer da boss!" The pokemon pulled out a random gadget. "Dis'll lead us to the good stuff hidden round 'dis joint. Just follow me!" Inside Meowth, the Sableye was grinning from ear to ear.

This was going to be too easy. And he couldn't wait.

"lead the way" Jessie said happily

"Why didn't you pull that out earlier Meowth?" James asked, a little nervous at the moment. "And what treasure? I thought," he trailed off as he looked at his little information booklet he had about most anything.

The Meowth led the way through the crowds, Jessie and James peeping around in their usual criminal manner, dashing from person to person as Meowth led them along until they were at an old and shabby looking side door. "In here." Meowth said as the device started to beep louder.

"In there?" Jessie asked

"The door doesn't look stable, are you sure? what if parts of this house is not fully restored?"

"Dat means da valuable stuff is still there!" The cat pokemon said, angrily. "Now C'mon! Or are da both of yas chicken?"

Meowth followed with James coming in last. The door was ajar momentarily before it shut with an eerie slam. Fortunately, the music was so loud on the other side that nobody noticed. Meowth started to laugh creepily as his eyes glowed purple and the door was covered in what looked like some kind of gaseous barrier.

"What's going on?" Jessie asked scared

Meowth's voice changed suddenly as his eyes continued to glint and glimmer in the dark. "You greedy fools wanted treasure. You doubtless would have destroyed our homes and our graves for it. Well now, you wanted your treasure ... here it is!" And laughing maniacally, a double image of Meowth and Sableye appeared before the Sableye leaped out of his host and hovered above the three, Meowth

shaking his head and only just coming to his senses. The jeweled eyes of Sableye were burning purple with a deep red core of anger, hatred, and a lust for revenge.

James at seeing this screamed girly and held onto Jessie as if she had become the last safe place on the Planet.

"Uh- Wh- What happened?", Meowth said, dazed.

James gasped a little. "I, I think you were possessed again."

"You thieves really get on my nerves." The ghost pokemon grated. So we're going to punish every single one of you to set an example and make sure nobody ever hurts our gravestones ever AGAIN!"

"But-"

"Seviper Poison Tail" Jessie tossed her pokeball

James was petrified

As he said it, what can only be defined as energy circles pulsed from the ghost's eyes as they gradually filled the room with multicolored lights and energies. The ghost then negligently used hypnosis to put the Pokemon to sleep. "I think it's time we turned things around a little bit." He chuckled darkly. "From what I've seen of this Meowth's memories, he's always been the ... underdog."

The pun was not lost on them or the Sableye but he left off on the laughter. "Let's fix that shall we? I'm sure he'll make a far better human than you two miserable bags of flesh ever could."

With that, he resumed pulsing, his hands glowing as an aura of power surrounded the ghost. The night was drawing on and with it ... his powers were growing and he was loving it. He hadn't been able to let go like this since ... well he couldn't remember, but it was wonderful! The Sableye grinned a toothy grin.

"I think I'll start with the cat." And with that, Meowth's costume started to glow a sickly purple mixed with black as Meowth looked helplessly on, his form beginning to grow and change, shifting from short and pudgy to tall and slim.

"Wh-What's..?", Meowth stammered.

"Don't worry little trainer, you'll do much better than your former masters did now won't you? I bet you'll even be the one to turn in that no good Giovanni." The ghost cackled at the idea, turning the foolish human's own lackeys against him. That was rich.

The lights continued to pulse around the room as Meowth grew, his voice changing and growing higher pitched.

"B-But... I- Da' Boss... I-", Meowth stammered more

"Now now little human. You should just worry about going on your journey and stopping evil whenever you find it, just like your hero, the chosen one. You know, the one with the black pointy hair and that shocking Pikachu. And you do have your two Pokemon to help you as well. Don't you remember?" The voice was dripping with irony and taunts. The Sableye was enjoying himself too much as the

same aura that had surrounded Meowth and started to change him now appeared around Jessie and James.

James yelped this time in fear as the lights began to surround him

"Very good, very good. Yelp like the canine you are." Came the sinister voice before the Pokemon returned to the Meowth that was rapidly changing. Meowth's paws were thinning out and shifting, losing their fur and becoming the equivalent of human hands. The same thing was happening down at his hind paws which were now changing to become human feet. Shoes grew up to cover them as the claws

disappeared. Meowth's whiskers withdrew into his face as his ears shifted and changed into circular human ears, reforming on the sides of his head. Even as the pulsing continued.

James was beginning to feel very hot while Jessie was trying to play it cool, the suit becoming almost skintight before suddenly feeling much more comfortable, almost as if it were her own skin.

The former Meowth put his head in his new hands, moaning at the pain.

"You won't get away with this" Jessie shouted

"Oh dry up you sniveling human! Then again, you're more of a Snivy now aren't you?" The ghost grinned maliciously at Jessie as she began to lose some of her stature and height. The haughty expression on her face remained of course; not even the increased powers Sableye got on All Hallows' Eve could rid the world of that wretched superiority.

"What's happening" she screamed

"ARCEUS! That voice is so annoying! Just shut UP ALREADY!" The ghost flared red and seemed almost to grow larger as he yelled in anger and frustration. She was giving him a headache if that's even physically possible for a ghost.

The Meowth didn't look much like a Meowth anymore. He had grown a spiky brown hairdo looking strikingly like Ash Ketcham's and as the rest of his fur disappeared. His nose and mouth separated, no longer a muzzle but a proper human face. He was staring at the colors now in a daze as they pulsed, working to gradually program the almost human with a new personality and memories while the old ones

struggled to remain.

The boy's red eyes were fading now and dimming, becoming a piercing ocean blue. Meowth was disappearing now, growing farther and farther away, and as he did, the tail, that last part of Meowth that remained was slowly starting to shrink and push its way back into the boy's body.

"You are at the party in my home without permission, little boy! But don't worry, I'm willing to forgive you, little trainer. Just don't try to capture me." The voice wasn't so angry or evil anymore seeing as this was a whole new Meowth now. "Can you tell me your name little one?"

"My name?", the little boy asked, "It's... Um... My name's Mickey. I'm from Viridian City."

"sni whats ly on?" Jessie screamed as her mind began to cloud up. why was she screaming? What was wrong? Did her trainer want her to fight the Sableye?

"Well there's one of them over there I believe. It looks like she could use a hug. And what is the species of your other partner little one?"

"He's a Growlithe. Daddy gave him to me before I was a trainer."

"Is that so?" The Sableye turned on James with a menacing looks, his eyes pulsing and focusing all of his will on the quivering human.

"Mmeeep"

"You need to be braver than that now. After all, you're a Growlithe, a fire Pokemon. Let's see some of that fire hmmmmm?"

Meanwhile, Mickey walked over to his Snivy and gave her a hug, as her face changed to that of a normal Snivy.

James gulped and puff'd his chest out. "fffire?" he stuttered, but sounding a little braver.

"That's right. You protect your trainer. You care for him ... remember? You will remember." The second saying was forceful willing the fact into James' mind. Even as he spoke, the pulsing increased and the fake fur adhered to James' skin, starting to look more and more real. He even started to glow a little bit as the two spoke, though it was getting a little harder for James to speak as a human being.

"Righ, right, I must protect my trainer, he is my protection and my honor," He muttered sounding more sure of himself by the second

"that's right. Now let's see ... ah yes, those hand shave to go. No self respecting Pokemon has hands now do they?"

"no sir," James shook his head.

And as James shook his head, his hands deformed, black padding forming on the bottoms while his fingers became stubby and short, nails sharpening into claws while his palms swelled up into one large pad. Hos feet were quickly following suit.

"Much better?" James asked the Sableye.

"Yes, much better. You'd best go to your trainer now little Growlithe, he looks a little scared. Nuzzle with that muzzle of yours."

Mickey had realized that Jess was always jealous of Jimmy. Jimmy was a special Pokémon that his father had given him - a Pokémon that scientists had found that was able to speak like a human. That made the two of them very close. But that didn't change the fact that Jess was his starter, and he needed to give her a bit more attention.

James nodded his and and moved towards Mickey to nuzzle his leg.

Mickey happily petted Jimmy's head, "Good boy, Jimmy," he said, as Jimmy's face pulled out into a Growlithine Muzzle. Jimmy briefly wondered what had happened to his brother Growlie, whom got separated from him as a pup, but moved it out of his mind because of his desire to protect his master.

The other pokeballs with their Pokemon were transferred to gyms where they would be treated properly and live out the rest of their lives happily with a puff of dark smoke. "Alright you three, time to go back to the party." The Sableye said mirthfully as the door opened again. "This room is a little unstable for living people like you."

"Okay." the new Growlithe admitted and trotted towards the door.

"But- I thought you didn't want me at the party," Mickey said.

"Oh no, no, no. I simply said you hadn't been invited yet. You weren't really dressed for it either. Now you're all ready. Go on, have some fun."

"But i don't have a costume... everyone's wearing costumes..."

"Woah, you look like a Pokemorph master." the Growlithe spoke with a giggle.

"Thanks Jimmy!"

"your welcome."

* * *

El Zorro, stepped into the outside backyard to escape from the sweltering heat he was feeling, he was dressed in black and as such, he needed to cool off.

However he blinked and stepped back at the mayhem he saw.

"Ooookayyy." he muttered. He turned around and after a few questions to guests, and complimenting a kid in a impressive Meowth costume was outside again with a torch and a large bucket of glue. "Okay... let's see if my old days of restoration work will come in handy, never did like crowds that much." he spoke to himself as he began to work on repairing the most damaged headstone he could find.

* * *

Conor stood by the table, still waiting for his friends; where were they? His stomach was starting to rumble horribly. He couldn't take it anymore, so he took off his helmet and went to the buffet to sample some of the delicacies.

There he ran into someone wearing a strange costume that had Victini ears, Delcatty face, Luxray Footpaws, and a Single Tauros Tail. It was... unique, that much was for certain.

Conor just stared for a moment. "Uhhhh ... Hello." He said. "I ... hope you don't mind but just what are you dressed up as anyways?"

The person in the costume sighed. It was a rather young voice, "Nothing in particular. My mom made this makeshift costume. I think she wanted to make sure Dad and Sis could keep an eye on me among all the other costumes."

The Mismagius smiled down at the two of them. trying to decide what to do.

"Wow. No offense, but even if you were in a regular costume, wouldn't you still be harder to see since you're a little shorter? Sorry. Oh, the name's Conor by the way. What's yours?" The human dressed as a robot extended a hand out to the boy with his helmet in his arm.

The boy grasped his hand, "My name's Max."

seeing her opening the Mismagius possessed a Pichu nearby. "Pi" the Pokemon said looking cute as it came up to them.

"Nice to meet you." Conor retracted his hand. "say ... aren't you that gym leader's son?" He asked as he saw the Pichu suddenly walk up. "Hey there little guy!" He said, smiling and reaching down his hand.

"Pichu" the small Pokemon motioned for them to follow

Max looked at Conor, "Think we should follow him?"

"You want to? I don't mind. My friends pretty much left me alone here, so it's probably better than waiting for them."

The human put his helmet back on his costume.

The Pichu lead them through the halls to a larger room.

"Huh, why do ya' think it led us here?" The muffled voice asked through the helmet.

"...I'm... not sure..."

The Pichu seemed to go blank for a moment then left through a crack in the wall as the door shut.

"Uhhhhh ... okay. That was weird."

Max felt something was up and ran back to the door, trying to get it open.

"Need some help Max?" Conor asked as he made his way over to the stubborn door.

"...I think it's locked," Max said.

"That it is" a voice added.

"Who said that?" Conor asked as he looked around.

"I did" the voice said.

"And you are?"

A dark figure appeared in front of them

"A- Mismagius?"

"Interesting costume choices…"

"She looks kinda cute, doesn't she? Is this your home?" The human asked the Pokemon.

The Mismagius's tendrels stroked maxes fake ears as they fleshed out.

"Max?" Conor asked as the boy stood there, his face looked as if he were in sheer bliss. "Are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah... I think so...", Max said.

She turned to connor touching the helmet as it began to seal to his skin.

"Hey ... what're you doing?" Conor reached up to his helmet and tried to pull it off. It was stuck. "I-I can't take it off!"

"A-Are you okay? Can you breathe in there?", Max asked, surprised

"I ... I think so. It's just ... stuck."

"Why do you try to remove your head?", the Mismagius asked, "Isn't that fatal to mortals?"

"Because it's not my head! ... Is it?"

"It is now."

Conor was starting to feel a little dizzy as the Mismagius hovered in front of him.

"That ... ohhhhhh man." He brought his hand up to feel his head only to hear a metallic clang.

Next the fur on Max's tail became a light orange with brown stripes as it started to swing animatedly.

"What- what are you doing to us?", Max wondered, realizing that he's changing as well.

"I-I think she's turning us into our costumes ... at least that is the most logical explanation." Conor said in a voice that sounded much less like the human once did. "Gah! I'm talking like a robot now too!" Even as he spoke, he found himself getting shorter and looking out the green tinted eye coverings in fear.

Max's body began to fur over.

"But-But this doesn't look like my costume...", Max said, "Then again, that's... a bit of an improvement."

"I agree." Conor let out a strange sounding chuckle as the mask's jaw started to move on its own, mimicking his words and eventually becoming his actual mouth. "Oh my! This is an interesting development." He said as he tried to touch it, only to register the vibration and the scraping of metal against metal. A dim pain could be felt as his fingers suddenly fused into the costume.

Suddenly the glove was real and he had two metal fingers and a glove. Then his vision started to turn green as numbers started descending in front of his vision.

"Oh my. It seems I am rebooting." He said, suddenly able to understand the scrolling binary that was blocking his vision. He shrank more and more and suddenly everything went black as he fell to the floor, a lifeless little backpack waiting to be activated.

Even as he shrank Max grew slightly

"WH-Wh-What's happening?"

His feet and hands growing claws though his hands seemed to be covered in gloves now. His muscles became leaner and stronger. as his mind began filling with new ideas for technology. his face became slightly more animal.

Max screamed out in pain as his voice grew deeper and older sounding

Max's shirt seemed to melt away leaving a jade green vest with more then a couple extra pockets. He gained a similar pair of pants. with a special hole for his tail. His gloves becoming like leather gauntlets. His glasses melted away as his eyes fixed themselves.

Max shook his head a bit, "Wh-Why did you...?", he asked the ghost.

"i didn't do anything, you came in here just now" she said as his memories fixed themselves

"...Yeah, sure," Max said, disbelieving. He walked over to the robot, "Guess he needs a reboot."

The Lombax crouched down and rebooted the robot.

Everything suddenly flipped on for the robot as light flickered inside of his green viewing monitors. A small antenna with a red sphere on top extended itself from the head while arms and legs popped out from the sides and bottom of the robot. It looked around a moment, confused at its situation and then saw the furry creature looking at it strangely.

"Thank you for rebooting me." The robot said, formally. "My name is XJ-775; it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Gears... You okay? Nothing damaged?", Max asked.

"Now you, too, should rejoin the party" she said

"That's good, Gears," was afraid you'd be out of it. The Lombax looked suspiciously at the Ghost.

"Ooooh, it appears we have an ectoplasmic manifestation." Gears said, intrigued at the ghost Pokemon.

"...English?", Max asked.

"In Layman's terms, a ghost." Gears clarified.

"Ah... Why didn't you just say so?", Max wondered.

Gears sighed, "I did, Max. You really need to work on expanding your vocabulary."

"Yeah, I guess so..."

"Now, didn't she say something about a party?" Gears asked, trying to cheer his partner up.

"Yeah. Also, I think we'll be here for a while... I went back alone to where we parked our ship. It's gone," Max said, "But... I guess it won't be too bad. Not at first."

"We can always build a new one." The robot said pointedly.

He nodded, "Yes. May take a while, but... Let's just enjoy this party, for now."

"Of course. I wonder if there are any pretty lady bots I can dance with." Gears said, laughing his strange robotic laugh.

Max rolled his eyes, "We'll see, Gears."

With that, the door opened and the sounds of the party could clearly be heard. Looking at each other one more time, the two companions took each other's hands and stepped back into the crowd, the door closing behind them before disappearing.

* * *

Nathan nodded and sighed in embarrassment, he felt like he got ripped off, that costume shop promised a "mascot worthy" Cubone suit, sure it fit but 'mascot worthy' apparently meant full of holes and a dinky rubber mask you can get at hobby shops, he liked the bone though they looked like they went through some pains to get it

His brown hair showing through he tried the Cubone speak a few times in front of a mirror, he was happy to be invited but was sort of disappointed that his suit wasn't better maintained, he reminded himself to take up some sewing to fix the holes in his suit

The Gengar glared. That costume was an insult to actual Cubone. He decided to keep the door locked so he could do something to the boy before he returned to the party.

Nathan finally lost it, "That costume shop should be sued for false advertising, I wanted a REAL costume not a fake thing like this!", He went for the door and realized it was locked as he checked the knob and saw the little button was pressed in, odd he didn't remember pressing it. Though turning the knob should cause the lock to pop free and it didn't."Heh heh heh...", a voice chuckled, "So... you want to look like a REAL Cubone?"

"You read my mind, yeah this shop cost me 20,000 Pokebucks for this junk", Nathan pulled the mask and it snapped back into his face, "Yeowch! Wait...who said that? Oh boy if there are ghosts types in here..."

Suddenly, Nathan feels his skin get very dry as it started to turn to an orange color and became scaly.

Nathan looked in the mirror at this, "Hrmm? Wait, wait, wait! I meant the costume not myself!"

His costume started to rip up as a tail grew out from behind him.

Nathan grabbed it, "Hmm… On second thought, keep going I think this'll be better then the cheap costume from earlier!"

His hands became more claw like as his feet also changed shape.

Nathan nodded, "this is excellent," he said noting the better grip he had on his club

Soon, his face started to change shape, cracking and breaking the very poorly made mask. Before he could see what a Cubone looked like under the mask, a new, real skull appeared over it.

The bone also changed, feeling more real in his grip.

Nathan smiled as he looked around and finally saw the eyes of his benefactor, "Thank you! This costume will be the envy of the party!"

"Heh heh...", the Ghost laughed, "You think I'm done? You realize all good things come with a price." And the clothes started to rip up as he started to put on a lot of weight.

"Wait, what! No, stop, stop!", He realized he was getting not only tubby but SUPER tubby that one maneuver he felt like he put on fifty pounds and was still going, "What...what are you doing? I'm done right?"

He put on a few more pounds before it started to slow, and then stopped. But soon his head started to hurt... His memories... who was- where was...?

"Wait what, who am I?", Nathan wondered as he looked at the Gengar, "who are you", then he looked down at his tattered costume, "And what is this...junk someone made a bad purchase or got ripped off!"

"Something like that... I'd be more worried about losing weight if I were you... but you can worry about that later. After all, it's a party!", the Ghost said with a laugh, "You can indulge for the day! But after that, you'll need to work off all these extra pounds."

The Morphic Cubone looked at his body and gasped, "How did I get so fat! I'm as tubby as a Snorlax!", He exclaimed

"Not THAT Bad... but you'll have a lot of working out to do, young Nathan."

"Nathan? That's...my name", Nathan's memory was foggy but only one thing got him irritated, "forget the party for now, I wanna pummel those con artists!" Nathan practically shrieked as he clubbed the door until he broke it down and took off.

"Hmmph. Some people are rude," Gengar joked. To be honest, this went exactly as he had planned. Now he had to just play along with Sableye for a while longer…

* * *

Above Agatha, invisibly, her Gengar floated protecting his mistress from any horrors that may attack her tonight.

Sableye stood looking down on the famous gym leader. He was a little nervous as he looked over the woman. She was beautiful the way she stood, but it seemed she could use a little preening up. Slowly he approached and allowed himself to become visible before the great woman. "It's you isn't it? You're Agatha."

"Hello spirit, is this your home?" She asked kindly.

"Yes ... but ... the other ones. They ... they've done something unforgivable!" The Sableye's eyes glowed an angry red as he spoke, his body trembling as his strength continued to increase with the midnight hour drawing closer.

The air next to Agatha hardened as her Gengar became visible. his own eye's glowing a deeper red, "Hold yourself, brother. Don't make me help you into the next life", His body gave off an aura of power, age, and wisdom.

The Sableye trembled before regaining control again. "My apologies. But ... they destroyed her tombstone! I'm used to not remembering but ... Mismagius ..." The tone was sadder and his eyes seemed to glow a deep blue now.

Agatha's eye's softened to the Sableye, "Do what you must, spirit. But harm no one if you can."

"Thank you." He bowed "May I ... that is ... can I ... do something for you?" He seemed rather shy around her for some reason ... did he know her in his past life?

"What could you possibly offer an old woman on her last leg?" Agatha asked

"This time of year ... the three of us can do more than the average ghost. If you would let me, I would be honored to revitalize you and give you some extra benefits along with it."

"Do what you will, my friend."

Sableye looked nervously at the protective Gengar.

"Go on," he said

The Sableye nodded before glowing purple once again, his eyes gleaming red as he focused on the old woman. "I hope you don't mind; I think you'd look better as a Persian. You already have the grace and the wisdom. So why not have the form to go with it?" he said, smiling sheepishly which looked surprisingly creepy.

Agatha just nodded acceptingly

As he did so, Agatha's costume began to take on a greater splendor as the fake gold began to gleam and shine, the gems becoming genuine valuables. White hairs began to sprout from her body as strength began return to her frame, allowing her to straighten her back and stand up straight, giving her an even greater look of dignity and nobility.

Her eyes turned red as she stood and looked upon the smaller ghost. A long, graceful tail made its way out the back of her dress as her hands changed into padded and clawed hand paws.

Her sandals changed as well to fit her new feet as they changed to digigrade form. Her hair changed from light gray to long flowing black as it gleamed in the moonlight. She gasped and started to walk confidently across the floor, her hobble rapidly turning into what looked like a graceful dance.

And even as she walked, the moonlight revealed that her wrinkles were rapidly disappearing, making her face seamless and beautiful as the years dropped away like old baggage.

Agatha smiled as she casually danced across the room. her Gengar beside her the whole time.

As she continued her dance, whiskers began to sprout from her face as her nose began to push outwards, looking more dainty but refined. She practically glowed as her head was covered in fur and her ears shifted to pointed cat like ones."It is finished, my lady." Sableye said, bowing to her.

Agatha nodded graciously.

* * *

Timothy had split away from his friend as soon as he could. He didn't know where Conor could be. He wasn't by the Bookcase where they promised to be waiting.

the Mismagius signaled to the Gengar for each of them to take one. she would take the one with the pompom. She invisibly floated behind her target gesturing as the image of his friend stepping into a far off room.

"H-Hey! Conor! Wait!", Timothy called out as he followed his friend.

The Mismagius tailed him quickly. As they entered the room, the door slammed shut.

Timothy spun around, "What the-?"

Conor was nowhere to be seen in the room. the Mismagius approached Timothy slowly.

"Who's there?", He shouted.

She allowed her eye's to become visible, "Hello, human."

He stepped back, "Whoa! A Ghost? I- I thought that all the ghosts in this mansion had passed on," He said.

She just stared at him with red glowing eyes. She examined his costume closely.

"Wh-What is it?"

"What are you, human?"

"I'm... dressed as a Moogle... a Moogle who is a butler," he explained.

"Ah, that's good. I like to know what I'm turning people into" she said.

"Wait - WHAT?"

"I'm sorry, did I not make myself clear?" she asked as his pompom started to attach itself to his head.

"N-No, but I'm wondering WHY."

"Humans destroyed my tombstone tonight. I no longer remember my life, as you humans say a life for a life" she said as his body began to shrink.

"Wait - I had nothing to do with it!"

"It doesn't matter to me" she said as his fur began to feel itchy.

He started to scratch at his fur and head felt strange as it pulled out into a small muzzle.

"K-Kupo," he found himself saying in shock.

On his back his bat like wings flapped idly. His eye's swelled on his face becoming huge as his ears became triangular and stretched out, they sort of looked like a mix of a feral cats and a rabbits. His memories altered, he remembered training to take up a job as a butler. serving and defending his boss no matter what should happen.

He bowed to the Mismagius, "Madam, do you want me to get rid of the partygoers?"

"Not yet, it's fine" she said. "Wait here until I call you" she instructed.

"Yes, Ma'am. You do know that this will be my last day serving you - the winner does win me in the contest. I am, honor bound to serve the rightful owner of the mansion, kupo."

"Of course" she said as the door opened for her.

Timothy stood up straight, waiting silently for his mistress - or for the winner of the contest to be announced - whichever came first.

* * *

Taze wandered through the crowd looking for Conor. He was sure they where supposed to meet by the fireplace…

Meanwhile, the Gengar floated over the other companion. He intentionally knocked done of the books over to draw his attention. Turning into Conner, he picks up the book and then walks off, as if not noticing Taze.

"Hey, man! We've been looking for you," Taze tried to get his attention following.

He entered a door that wasn't there before.

Taze followed quickly "Hey man, stop for a second!"

The room was empty, except for what appeared to be Conor, looking at the book.

Peter walked up and attempted to put a hand on his shoulder.

As he did so, he was suddenly frozen in place as the door behind him slammed closed.

He laughed as he changed back, "Surprised, boy?"

"A-a Gengar? Okay, what's the joke?"

"You are," he answered simply. Suddenly, the costume spikes fell out as real ones jutted out of his chest and hands, the pain unbearable.

"Oh, Arceus!" Taze shouted as it happened.

The already skintight fur of the suit now started to attach itself to his body.

"What are you doing?" Taze asked getting over the pain.

"I may not exactly agree with it, but my two accomplices have decided to change all you humans and your Pokémon - because two of you have destroyed one of our graves," he said with a bit of remorse, "I'm outvoted, for once, rather than being the tiebreaker."

Suddenly, Taze's chest began to balloon out to a very large state.

Taze was forced into a moan at the feeling. "oh god are these?""His" hands became free again, "I think I owe you this much, at least."

"Are you making me a girl?" Taze asked

"In accordance to your costume. Feel free to explore... while you still have your mind."

Suddenly, a strange feeling occured lower in his body, as his voice raised a few octaves

"Oh, Mew", she, for Taze was sure it was official now, squeaked. A hand pressed a breast experimentally. She felt a burst of pleasure at the touch.

"Now now... Don't start that kind of stuff with all the kids in the next room over."

Suddenly, Taze's face pulled out into the long muzzle of a Lucario and her ears moved up to the top of her head. The one piece missing from Taze's costume suddenly sprouted out from her petite behind - a tail.

Suddenly, her mind clouded. Her old memories vanished, putting in their place a life of servitude to the owners of the Mansion, much like her friend from childhood, Timothy.

Even her name wasn't safe. Her name was Terra, named after mother earth itself.

"Now, Terra... Are you alright now?"

Terra got up off the floor her costume now changed to a proper french maid's outfit complete with fishnet stockings. She looked at the Gengar. "Yes sir, sorry for the outburst."

"Yes. Well, we don't need you to get underfoot of the partygoers," he said, handing her the book, "So you have some time off to work on some of your reading."

"Sir, it has been an honor serving you" she smiled leaning over to give him a kiss on the cheek. angle was perfect for him to see down her shirt.

With that, he smiled and left the room.

* * *

Brock was walking around the area, trying to chat up various ladies. Of course, this went about as well as could be expected.

A chill ran through Brock as the Sableye watched over him, seething with fury. If there was one thing that this unresting spirit couldn't stand, it was a pervert. The question was ... how to take care of this one? A devious grin spread over his face as the Pokemon realized the perfect method to lead him away. First he placed the Croagunk under a hypnotic spell so it would not interfere.

Then he took on the guise of a young woman. It was thanks to a Ghastly he knew back in the Kanto region he knew this trick. Last but not least came the obvious flirtation.

What appeared to be a hot young blonde lady stood in an innocent dress, a small bejeweled tiara on her head was winking at the former gym leader flirtatiously.

Brock stared. Was someone actually advancing on him?

The "woman" made her way towards a side door and made the come hither sigh with her finger before winking once more, unleashing a devastating smile, and slipping through the door with an echoing laughter that sounded like the gentle ringing of a chorus of bells.

Brock blindly followed, not finding this strange in the least, the fool.

The Room, like many of the others that the people have been trapped in, seemed very barren. It was not at all what Brock had been expecting (as he was expecting a Bedroom or something).

The heavenly laughter could be heard deeper in the darkness of the room again and brock's eyes immediately turned into hearts at the sound of the woman who'd flirted with him.

Brock floated towards the sound and saw the young beautiful woman with that tinkling laughter once again. He saw what appeared to be one of those old four poster beds, ornate and left behind from the previous owners. Yet it looked brand new. Next to it lay what looked like some sort of dog bed. Brock smiled as he saw the woman standing by the bed. She motioned with her hand for him to sit down and he hurriedly obliged, his heart in his eyes and tears starting to stream out in fountains as he thought his dream was finally going to come true.

The girl approached him and placed her hand under his chin. "You know ... you really are so adorable when you look like this. Now if only we could get rid of that lecherous personality." She grinned coldly at him now.

And the temperature began to drop in the room.

"Wh-What?", Brock asked.

"Awwww, you're just like a big puppy dog aren't you?" She said, grinning as her eyes began to sparkle. Brock shivered in the increasing cold.

"Wh-what's going on?"

"Oh, my! We can't have you freezing to death now can we? Why don't you warm things up a bit hmmm?"

"Awww, Brock, you're just so cute when you look at me like that with those bit brown eyes!" She fawned over him as she ran her hands through his hair.

Even as she spoke, the slits that were normally Brock's eyes suddenly popped open and began to widen, growing much larger as she pet him. He shut his eyes in contentment as she ran her hands through his hair. It felt so good. He was feeling warmer now too, the cold not nearly as penetrating as before. He smiled dumbly as his hair started to change from black to a fiery reddish brown.

"That's a good boy. Now why don't you lie down so I can give you a nice rub, hmmmmm?" Her eyes were glowing red as she stared into his own.

Brock shook a little but did as told.

"Good boy." She started to rub over his belly and as she did so, the clothing began to dissolve in shimmering gold, red fur was growing in where she went over and despite his best efforts, Brock found himself really enjoying the attention ... he could even feel his tails wagging ... wait tails?

"Wh-What are you doing to me?"

"Heehee, just fixing your little problem, sweetie. You're so cute when you look confused!" She continued to rub him and his pants disappeared, revealing six tails wagging at the attention. Even as she ran another hand through his head fur ... wait ... wasn't it something else before? His head was feeling very foggy even as his face started to push outwards and his ears to point and shift on his head.

Brock found himself whimpering a little at what was happening to him.

"Now now, no need to cry. You'll be happy like this. And of course I know a lady who'd love to get to know you once you're a little more mature. You need a better upbringing and I know just the person to do it. I took the liberty of looking into your memories. So I figured I'd give you a fresh start." Her voice had a more ethereal quality to it now as her figure started to take on a more see-through quality. "Don't worry, I have it all worked out." She smiled at him.

"Bu-But..."

"Shhhhhhh, now you know Pokemon don't speak human." She smiled down at him as his voice started to crack and grow higher while he shrunk, the fur covering the new appendages and curving cutely as his body began to radiate heat.

"Now that's much better. You must be feeling so tired though isn't that right Brocky?", she petted the tiny Vulpix as his changes drew to a close, and running her now clawlike fingers through his fur brought silvery streaks out of his head as his memories started to change.

The small creature who was formerly Brock Harrison yawned.

The ghost Pokemon dropped his act as the Pokemon fell asleep. Using his ghostly powers, he placed the little Pokemon on the doggy bed before making a little doggy door appear in the side door he had lured Brock through in the first place. The new Vulpix wouldn't be noticed in the party anyways since lots of Pokemon were let loose to have fun too. The Sableye grinned once, wished Brock pleasant dreams and then disappeared from the room.

* * *

KC and Akira were still stumbling around in their "Zebstrika" costume, much to the laughs of some of the less caring people at the party.

"KC! You're terrible at this!"

"You're the one who picked the two person costume, Akira!"

The Mismagius studied the costume trying to figure out what it was

"Hey! Watch it you Muk!", one person shouted after Akira had plowed into him.

"HEY! It's not a Muk! Anyone can plainly see it's a Zebstrika!", Akira protested once more.

"Zebstrikas aren't brown...", KC muttered.

"But neither are Muks!", Akira complained.

Laughing the Mismagius created a door infront of them waiting for them to stumble through.

The two did in short order.

the skin began to seal where it would normally split.

"Really, something weird's going on... I can't see out any holes in the costume anymore."

"You're not supposed to!"

"But..."

KC's legs began to fure with the hooves as they slowly reshaped into actual Zebrstrika hooves

"A-Aah-", KC started to panic, realizing something was very wrong.

"KC, be quiet back there, I think I'm finally getting a hang of this."

the rest of kc's rear began to fill into the back of the costume as it became real.

"Uhh... Akira..."

"NOT NOW!"

kc's body began to swell as inside it moved to make contact with akira before sinking into his body, akira didn't seem to even notice yet that he now had a horse body.

Noticing the quiet, Akira only nodded to himself, and noticed that it was alot easier to move, "You're getting it now, KC!"

slowly the changes swept over his own feet as they became hooved Zebstrika legs. hands begging to retract

"H-Huh? W-Wait a minute? What's-"

his arms and hands vanished into his body as his face began to fill the mask which was reforming to a proper Zebstrika head.

"-happening to M-estrika! Zebstrika"

"That's much more fitting" the Mismagius said as KC's mind bubbled inside Akira's even as there memories blurred and rearranged

The two's newly combined mind started to grow feral, and quite soon enough, they were a Wild Zebstrika, running around in the empty room, trying to find a way out.

A door that had not been there before opened to reveal a stable.

The wild Pokémon tilted his head but obediently entered anyway.

The door closed behind him leaving him in the well prepared stable where he would be fine for the night.

* * *

Koga rolled his eye's as he stood perfectly still in one spot with amazing posture. seriously it was freaking people out. the master would much wrather be at home training then here.

"Hmmph... This guy is too serious," the Gengar murmured, "He needs a bit of a sense of humor..."

Koga didn't do anything.

"Hmm... How to get a guy like him out of the way..."

Gengar grinned and started weaving an illusion. Thanks to the illusion, Koga seemed to phase out from the rest of the world, though he was really in the same spot.

"So now... Let's see if I can keep you a Ninja while making you a bit more... interesting."

Grey fur started to sprout on Koga's body.

Koga looked at his hand as his face was unreadable.

His hands elongated into claws.

Koga's face showed a small frown as he looked. As he frowned, the face pulled out into a long muzzle, it was a rather painful experience, even for the ninja. Koga grimaced at the pain.

The pants of his outfit seemed to phase out of existence as a long rat tail snaked out, his feet ripping through the tabi he was wearing.

"What is going on?" he wondered out loud.

Gengar was having too much fun to give a clear response yet as the top of Koga's outfit, the only part that remained, became brown and somewhat tattered. The remains of the rest of his clothes changing into a walking stick and feet wraps. the latter of which wrapped around his largish feet.

Koga was starting to worry

The ghost grinned even larger, if that was possible. The Ninja was clearly starting to worry. Good. That means he was finally breaking through his cool exterior.

Koga's ears finally moved up to the top of his head and twitched a bit as they ended up pointed.

The ghost laughed, "And finally, the memories. Don't worry, 'Splinter-san', your sons will be joining you soon enough."

"who said that?"

Koga's mind started to change. He didn't lose any of his ninjitsu training, but his personality and past were changing greatly.

"Let's just say I'm your 'benefactor'. I saved you from an eternal darkness."

The memories of the gym began to fade away as Koga started to see life as a pet, and then the two incidents that changed his life. Adopting four sons... their training...

Splinter looked around hastily, holding his staff ready to strike. "Where are you hiding them?"

The ghost appeared in front of him, "Just right here. There are humans about. I can only keep my illusion of invisibility up for a while longer. You may want to go into one of the upstairs rooms and wait for your sons there."

Splinter vanished when the ghost was gone. heading to one of the rooms.

* * *

Prof. Oak was dressed up much like a Pokémon trainer. A Costume Party was the best way to relax after a lot of research.

The Sableye chuckled at the human below in his little costume. Clearly he missed his days as a young trainer. Sableye figured he might as well oblige the human. He started by forming the door and then creating the illusion of two Pokemon that featured most prominently in the professor's mind. A Charmeleon and Celebi.

"Ch-Charmeleon? Celebi?", he asked as he saw them.

Professor Oak had a feeling this was a trap... but he was too intruged to NOT follow.

{Thaaat's it, come on in human, you'll be glad you did.} The Sableye thought to himself as he stood waiting in the room beyond.

The Professor opened the door, and entered the room, this one not newly created like most of the other rooms that the ghosts have been using.

The door shut quietly behind him and a dim light much like a flame could be seen further in the darkness.

"Alright... who's in here?", Samuel questioned.

"Charmeleon!" came the call of the professor's old companion. He sounded distressed.

The professor hesitated for only a moment before running to the ghost.

"So ... you've come to capture me, have you trainer?" Came the darker voice of the ghost pokemon.

"No, I haven't. What makes you say that?", The professor asked.

"You have that Pokedex and an entire belt of Pokeballs. Plus that pack on your back. Clearly you must be a young trainer trying to make a name for himself. I get them from time to time in our manner."

"...Okay, you're obviously paranoid," the Professor said, "I'm far too old to be a trainer."

"OLD? Please! You think your little costume can fool me? I know what I see. And I see a little boy who's trying to be sneaky. You really shouldn't try to fool your elders like that." He then proceeded to mumble about how kids these days had no respect for the rules, etc. Even as he spoke, professor Oak started to change, losing a little of his height and having some of his wrinkles disappear from his face while the color gradually returned to his hair.

"What Costume are you talking about?", he asked, clearly confused.

"You're dressed up like a Pokemon professor. I mean that lab coat is clearly too long for you for one. And while I can see you have plenty of love for Pokemon you still have a ways to go before you're at that level. I mean just look at you. You even have a sketch pad out to draw me!"

"...I like to draw, is there anything wrong with that?", he asked, "And that's beside the point," he said, his mind slightly changing, "Why were you imitating my friend and my Partner?"

"You make me sound like some sort of monster. I'm just trying to defend my home from trainers like you. You have no regard for our home or our cemetery!"

"I didn't even know this place had a cemetery," Oak said, honestly.

"Really? I find that hard to believe. Now Halloween celebration would be complete without one. But if you really feel the need to battle me, I suppose I can oblige you; call out your companion and we shall begin."

"Well, I didn't want to Battle you, since it's just a party... but you seem to really want one..."

"Charizard! I Choose you!", he shouts, throwing out a Pokéball and releasing his elderly Charizard.

Charizard roared as it appeared

"Hmmmm, a worthy opponent, but for one so young he is out of your league. He is your starter companion after all, he should be the same age as you are." The ghost grinned as he began to change the Charizard, causing it to begin to shrink and its wings to retract in what looks almost like a reverse evolution.

"Charmeleon" it screamed.

"Hey! What'd you do to him?", Samuel asked.

"Grr... Chariz- I mean, Charmeleon, Flamethrower!"

Charmeleon released the blast of flame at the ghost

"Oh my! No need to get so testy." The ghost said as he nimbly dodged away. The fire seemed to dance along the surfaces of the ghost pokemon's eyes in a mesmerizing sort of way. It was very beautiful.

"...Why did you change my Pokémon?", Sammy asked, "And you still didn't tell me why you pretended to be Celebi."

"Inquisitive trainer aren't you? I'll tell you what. You do a drawing of me, and I'll tell you why I did what I did. Does that sound alright to you?"

"...Alright. Are you okay with that Charmeleon?"

"Char…" Charmeleon said still confused.

Sammy pulled out his sketchpad again and began to draw the Pokémon.

While Sammy proceeded to work on the drawing, Sableye's eyes glowed a deep red while a purple aura surrounded his body. He figured he might as well look the part for the kid while he worked on altering hiw memories.

Sammy continued to draw, amazed, as he kept focus on the spectacle the ghost was showing him and his own art

"I hope you're enjoying this. I don't usually let people draw me." He said, smiling a bit slyly as he subtly shifted Oak's memory so that he remembered asking to draw rather than seeking to battle and capture the ghost Pokemon.

"Yeah, I am."

"Your Charmeleon is very strong too."

"Thanks. I've been training him a long time," he said, distractedly.

"For one so young? Why you can't be more than ten years old, eleven at the most!"

"Well... it's been a long year...", he admitted, getting the details on the gems in the Sableye's eyes.

"So you started a year ago on your journey hmmmm? It's strange ... I can almost grasp something but it's been too long. My marker has long since decayed."

As he continues detailing, Sammy asks, "What do you mean?"

"For ghosts like us ... our memories are tied to our grave markers. When they fade away or get destroyed, our human memories are lost along with them. Such a case happened recently due to two children's foolishness. They have been punished, but we must defend the rest of our home as well."

"Okay...", Sammy Oak said warily, "but I was also wondering about what you were trying to grasp..."

"A memory; or rather an echo of a memory. Sometimes there are things which remind me dimly of my life, but it is rare; very rare."

"Oh..."

"No use crying over spilt milk. It just makes it a little hard to take care of unfinished business for some of us. Others are fine just living in this world and trying to keep our own little corner where we can live in peace."

"I see... Well, I'm almost done with your picture," Sammy said. This alarmed the ghost. He must have been too busy reminiscing.

"You're fast, kid." He said, chuckling as Oak finished shrinking. All signs of his old age were gone and he was now clearly the age of a young trainer on his journey. The lab coat he once had along with his other clothing had been converted back into more modern poke-gear. Though the main clothing he wore was the same he wore when he was on his adventure with Celebi. The Charmeleon was trying to not look too impressed but the ghost Pokemon could tell he was.

"Don't worry, you look just as cool the way you are. You'll be even better when you evolve."

"Huh?", Sammy said, as he finished sketching.

"Oh nothing, I was just talking to your companion. He was getting a little jealous." The Sableye said, grinning good-humoredly at the Charmeleon.

"Ah, alright," he said, he turned the picture to the Sableye, "How's this?"

The picture that graced him looked far better than any photo could. The sableye gaped at the skill. It almost made him look cooler than he thought possible. The dark furniture helped to accentuate his look and the details of the aura and gem-like eyes were breath taking. "Wow ... just ... wow."

"Glad you like it," he said, "I've always liked sketching out Pokémon. I wonder what that means the future holds for me, though."

"Oh I'm sure you'll figure it out. And i think I know someone who can help you on your journey. He's been out a while too. Kid by the name of Mickey. You'll find him dressed up as a meowth. He's got a snivey and growlithe for his companions. I think they should get along well with your charmelion."

"Alright. I think I'll do that," Sammy said, "Come on, Charmeleon," he said as he headed to the door.

"Enjoy the party, kid!" {Hmmmm, not bad for a human.}

* * *

Pikachu looked around. People seem to be disappearing one by one.. Are they getting scared off for some reason? Or is it something else?

...And then there was the matter of his stalker, Bunneary. Once she saw him here she refused to let him go.

"Hello, Pika-kun" she said happily

"Uh... h-hello, Bunneary...", he responded, a bit nervous.

"What's wrong?" she asked

"...", Pikachu wondered if he should just say that SHE is what's wrong at the moment. But that would be mean.

"Oh, look at the cute couple." the Mismagius said descending.

Pikachu sweatdropped. Someone referred to them as a couple again, didn't they?

"Now what, shall I do for you two?", she wondered.

"Hmm... Koga's gone... And so's Professor Oak...", he wondered out loud.

Pikachu was wearing a Samurai-esque costume... who put it on him and where he got it were both mysteries that Pikachu wasn't willing to divulge to the other Pokémon - okay, so Squirtle got it for him and he thought it was cool.

Smiling, the Mismagius started slowly as Pikachus ears began to flatten out and lengthen.

Pikachu felt something was wrong, but he couldn't place it.

Both of them began to grow as Pikachu and Bunneary's ears became wrapped in pony tail style.

Pikachu looked around... Where was Ash? He didn't disappear too, did he?

Both of their costumes grew with them becoming more detailed as Pikachu's fur turned a snowy white.

"Hmm... Where is he?"

"Uh, Pika-kun?", Bunneary tried to warn Pikachu.

"...What?", he asked, slightly irritated.

"You're white" she said.

"Wh- That's weird...", Pikachu said as he looked at himself.

His feet began to get bigger as his arms lengthened and his paws became hands

Pikachu's eyes widened at the change, "I- I knew something was going on, but..."

His face pulled out into a rabbit muzzle.

The former Pikachu felt around his new face, "I- I'm a..."

Pikachu drew the two swords at his side, and somehow instinctively knew their names, "...Yagi no Eda and Aoyagi...", he muttered.

Beside him, Bunneary's form grew in as a bottle appeared in Pikachus belt.

Pikachu's mind began to alter... wait... Pikachu? Who was that? He was Miyamoto Usagi. Putting his sword back he looked around. No sign of Leonardo, his friend who he came here to find. This was disconcerning.

"What's wrong master?" the rabbit genie asked

"...Nothing's wrong, Jeanie...", he lied.

"is there anything you need?" she asked as she entered her bottle.

"Not right now, Jeanie," he insisted. "Actually... I think I know where to go," he said, heading for the staircase leading upstairs.

* * *

Alder looked around somewhat bored with this, of course he really had no choice.

"Hmm... This one...", Gengar said while hovering above, "That costume's really interesting.. Wonder why a serious guy like him would have such a costume..."

Alder looked around annoyed for the other champions, they where all supposed to be here to congratulate the winner.

"...Looks like this will be complicated. The Champions tend to be the smartest, bravest people... hmm... how to separate them..."

Looking into his memories very briefly, the Gengar saw a memory that he really shouldn't utilize, but it was the only way he could think of to lure him away from his duties.

Looking into his memories very briefly, the Gengar saw a memory that he really shouldn't utilize, but it was the only way he could think of to lure him away from his duties. In the distance, a very familiar Pokémon cry was heard by Alder and Alder alone.

Alder went running towards the sound. Standing before him in a bedroom was what looked like his own Pokémon, before he died.

Gengar could kick himself. He really didn't like toying with emotions like this...

"I'm sorry...", was the only thing that was said by the ghost before the hood of Alder's costume came to life and bit down hard over Alder's head.

"What's happening?" Alder wondered.

The ghost felt bad for having to do this, but when the three ghosts did something, they did it as a group.

"...It's time for another change in your life, Champion Alder."

Slowly Alder could feel his arms and legs shifting and changing size, forcing him on all fours.

Alder looked up at the ghost with a pained expression.

His hands and feet became paws, as his face started to pull out into a leonine muzzle, similar to a Luxray's, though with some difference.

Alder was still silent as the changes happened.

Suddenly, Alder lost vision in one of his eyes as a large scar appeared over it, much like on the costume, and the tail of the costume grew attached to his body. The fire-looking fur at the tuft of the tail suddenly burst into flames.

Alder's remaining eye widened.

The fake fur on the rest of his body became real, the tattoos and scars all his now. His eyes changed color to a flaming red color, and he could vaguely see the spirit of his companion leap into his body.

"...This is the best compensation I can give you. You will live as one with your friend. The last thing you'll know before your mind changes to suit your new life."

After a moment, their mind started to change, memories of Cosmo Canyon and a long life both behind and ahead of him. And of a tribal and yet proud past.

"Where am I?" Nanaki said looking around.

The ghost had faded out from sight, so Red XIII was left wondering this. The room he was in was nice, but unfamiliar.

"Hmm... If I remember, he had a mate... I'd better go do some nondescript other guest into Denah", the ghost murmured to himself as he left the room.

* * *

Of course, when Barry had joined the party, the first thing he did was ran into someone and tell them he was going to fine them. Still, Barry was Barry and that was to be expected. He was hyper even after he had been there for a while, though.

He was the first person to notice Paul missing, and was starting to ask around.

{Hmmmmmm ... I need to take care of this little hyper human before he rouses too much suspicion. But how to do it?} He pondered. Then a delightful idea popped into his head.

Barry's costume looked like something out of comics, a Black and Purple Spandex suit and sneakers. When Barry could have learned of such a character in-between all of his antics at home and his Pokémon training was anyone's guess.

The ghost Pokemon decided to go with an illusion of Barry's favorite thing and a villain for him to chase after for good measure. The two things materializing on a table outside near the graveyard, though not too close. And just to make sure the kid would follow, he used the power of hypnosis, staring deeply into the boy's eyes and placing him deeply into a hypnotic trance. "You will go outside

... you will go outside ... you must go outside ... you want to go outside." the Sableye whispered to the suddenly rigid human.

"I will go outside... I will go outside... I must go outside... I want to go outside," Barry repeated in monotone before going to do just that.

The Sableye chuckled. That was too easy. Then he made his way outside to await the foolish and so easily duped human.

Barry stood outside, still entranced, awaiting further orders.

"Good boy. Now it's time for the next stage. You are going to change for me. You will become whatever I want you to become and you will obey my every command. Repeat my commands. What will you do?"

"I will change for you. I will become whatever you want me to become and will obey your every command. I will repeat your commands."

"Good. Now let us test that. We'll start small. Point your ears."

Barry did as instructed, grabbing his ears and making them point.

"No, no, no not like that. You point them on your own. No using your hands. Will them. Return them to their old selves and point them again."

Barry let go of them and somehow, miraculously, made his ears slowly become pointed.

"Good ... veeery good. Now I want you to shape shift. You will become a Tauros but when you have finished changing you will still understand me and will remain obedient to me."

Barry's skin and clothes became brown fur. The two parts of his hair that were poking out like horns easily transitioned into actual tauros horns, as his eyes narrowed and three bumps appeared on his head.

"TAAUUUR...", he shouted, still in an entranced tone.

"Not bad Barry, but I want a full Tauros. You forgot the tails, and you need to be on all fours. You are going to become a Tauros ... understand?"

He falls onto all fours, his hands becoming hooves as well, and his body changed shape further, "Taaaurooos...", he mooed out, still in a hypnotic trance.

"Good Barry, very good. I want you to change back to human form again, but keep the pointed ears you had before ... understand?"

The Tauros nodded before doing as he was instructed.

"Excellent. Now ... tell me Barry ... what is your favorite fanged pokemon?"

"Houndoom...", he managed to say.

"You like houndoom hmmm? Good. Now Barry, I want you to focus on Houndoom ... on those fangs, that luxurious black fur coat, the horns and skull markings, everything. Then I want you to become Houndoom ... do you understand?"

Barry stood there for a moment silently...

Barry falls on all fours as his hair had again shifted into horns, this time large devilished curved ones.

His face pulled out into a long muzzle with large, sharp fangs. Steely looking bones pulled out of his back. A Collar with a skull motif appeared around his neck. A Devil's tail appeared from behind him and swished back and forth slowly. Barry blinked and his eyes became narrower, and changed in color to Blood Red.

His Skin darkened as black fur appeared on almost all of his body. Finally, steel rings appeared around his wrists and ankles.

"Houndooooooom", he howled, getting a glance of the moon in the distance behind his master.

"Good boy. Now ... to get used to using attacks in your shifted forms. I want you to fire a shadow ball into the air, but make it a small one so that it will not be noticeable to the rest of the partygoers."

Looking up, he formed a small ball of pure darkness in his mouth and released it, shooting it up into the air.

He then looked at his master, his tail wagging, hoping for some sort of confirmation that he was being a good dog.

"Well done. You're a good boy. Here." The Sableye tossed a Pokeblock to the Houndoom. "After you've finished eating that I want you to turn human again, but you will keep the fangs ... understand? You will keep the fangs and you will keep the pointed ears. Acknowledge that you will do this."

The houndoom barked an affirmative before munching the delicious candy that was thrown to him.

Shortly thereafter, he returned to his human form, but kept a sharp fang, like his master had ordered.

"Good boy. Look at you Barry, you're turning into a regular beast boy aren't you?" The ghost Pokemon rubbed Barry's head as a show of approval. "Now Barry, I want you to become a green Pokemon. It can be any one you want, but I want you to become one that is big and very strong. Then when I tell you I want you to become something very small of the same coloration. This is to teach you to

shift without going back to human form and to also become something tiny so that you can learn to be stealthy and use your forms for other various purposes. Now ... change."

Barry again falls onto all fours, as a large red and pink plant suddenly explodes out of his back.

Large green leaves sprouted from underneath the plant as he grew in size and his skin became a green color. His body changed shape to a quadped reptilian creature and his eyes changed size again, once again becoming Red.

His face pulled out into a strange shape and his fanged teeth became even sharper, "Sauuuuuu-r!"

He grew three claws on each of his trunk-like feet.

"VenuSAUR!", he shouted.

"Eeeeexcellent. So powerful! So strong! Let me see your vine whip. Target that big tree there, but don't destroy it. I just want to see some gouges."

"SAUR!", he shouted, a long vine extending from the plant on his back and gouging the dead tree.

"Saur!", he said, asking for another treat.

"Yes, you earned it." He said, tossing two pokeblocks this time since the venasaur was so big.

Barry happily munched his two Pokéblock.

The Blossom starts shrinking back into Barry's back, and his body hardens as he shrinks down, starting to stand up on his back feet again. His face changed from a broad and somewhat scary look into an adorable babyish face. The green of his skin changed to a different tone.

Black markings appeared under his still red eyes and a red chest diamond appeared on his body. Finally, a fin appeared on his head and a strange looking tail appeared.

"LAR!", he said, cutely.

"Well done! Well done! Here's another pokéblock for you, you wonderful wonderful boy." The ghost Pokémon tossed the block to the little mon.

He happily munched it in an adorable way.

When the Larvitar was finished eating its treat, the Sableye spoke again to his hypnotized pet. "Now then Barry, I want you to listen very very carefully. You are going to change back to the human form you had before. HOWEVER ... you will keep green. Even your hair and your eyes ... all will be green. You will keep the fangs and you will keep the pointed ears. And I want you to do that right

now, understand?"

Barry transformed as instructed back into his human form, but retained the pointed ears, green skin, and fangs.

"Now Barry, I want you to stay nice and still do you understand me? You will stay still for me while I fix you up."

"Yes, Master," Barry said, monotone.

The Sableye floated over to the human, completely within his power. He grinned as her an his hands through the human's hair. As he did so, the horn like protrusions fell flat and became part of the hair as it shortened and turned a darker green on Barry's head. "Good boy Barry. Good boy. Now I am going to do something else for you. I am going to alter your memories. You will not mind this.

In fact, you want me to do so. You will enjoy it as you remember who you really are, but are still under my power. You will still have all knowledge of this world and the many creatures within, but your memories will change the way I want them to."

"Yes Master..."

"Your name is Garfield ... Garfield Logan. You have the ability to take on many forms. You have many friends and fight with the power of shapeshifting. You have been this way since your parents saved you from a terrible virus which solution gave you your powers. You fight evil wherever you can but for now are having fun at this party. You like to pull pranks and be as funny as you can while

also liking to show off and use your powers for fun and entertainment every once in a while."

"Do you understand all this?"

"Yes."

"Good. Now I'm going to put you even deeper under my hypnotic spell." The Sableye looked deeper into the boy's eyes, the jewel eyes glowing red once again with swirls spiraling around within them.

Beastboy's eyes began to swirl and he started to drool.

"Hmmmmm looks like my work is almost done." he looked at beastboy pensively and then spoke aloud. "Boogers."

Then he faded into the darkness, but not before planting a hypnotic trigger for himself to put Barry back under his control whenever he chose to. He was going to have alot of fun with that boy.

Beastboy snapped to and started to laugh, "Boogers. HAHAHAHAHA!"

After a moment, he realized that he was in a strange graveyard that he had never been to.

"Huh?"

* * *

The young man who called himself "Light" looked around. He was a bit lonely, as it seemed none of his friends had made the party after all, despite having planned to.

the Mismagius examined this persons costume closely

The Blue fur stood out very well, and the snout of the canine creature was very distinctive compared to any Pokémon's.

It had horns instead of ears, but they weren't as twisty and devilish looking as a Houndoom. Gengar had told her something about a creature from another world that looked like this... What was it's name?

Suddenly temembering what Gengar said the Mismagius smiled. Slowly in Light's vision a large fiery orange bird waddled into one of the rooms.

"N-No way... That can't be...", he said, following the creature that was not Moltres.

Inside the room was what looked like a plant of some kind grown around a large grey stone disk.

"No way... are those... the disks?"

He walked up to the stone disk, and tried to move it. It seemed to tingle in his hands as the blue fur began to attach itself Light was too giddy about the disc to even notice. His fingers throbbed as the claws attached themselves to the bone becoming real.

He dropped the disc in shock, "W-Wait a minute..."

The disk shattered against the ground as the horns dug into his head and connected to his skull as it shifted into a canine head.

He groaned out, in pain, "What- What's going on... did this... happen to the others? Did they get here too?"

His feet rearranged into digigrade paws.

Light nearly stumbled over at his new feet's positioning, but he managed to catch himself. A long fluffy husky-like tail grew out behind him.

"I-I'm turning into Tiger?"

His mind began to cloud as his memories changed.

"Wh-What am I... M-Mistress!", Light the Tiger managed to say, "Wh-What are you doing in here? I-I haven't gotten dressed yet."

"It's not like its the first time i've seen you this way" the Mismagius winked at him.

"Y-Yes... That's true..."

"And besides, I think it's proper for me to say goodbye this way."

"That's right... Today we're getting a new master, aren't we?", the Tiger said solemnly.

"Yes" the mismagius nodded.

"It has been good to be in your service, mistress," the bodyguard said with a bow.

"And it has been good to have you in my service," Mismagius said, "and Light remember to look after terra, poor girl has two left feet"

"Of course, my lady."

* * *

Lucy had just finished a nice conversation with one of the guests and looked up but frowned a little where did Brock go? She did ask him to meet her a little later so she could talk, but she smiled and moved to the punch, wearing the costume was rather warm.

She had Ninetales ears, a bundle of store bought Ninetales tails and face panted some Ninetales features, she was wearing a golden tan pants and shirt for the occasion and smiled as she moved about while avoiding the people milling around, she finally reached the punch bowl and drew her a cup, she blinked as she saw what appeared to be a bandit rush out of the back door with a bucket, how odd she thought to herself before returning to sipping her cup.

A While later, the Gengar had come back. He had just finished changing another girl into a Ninetails and was about to move on to Lucy. It just so happened that at that moment, a small Vulpix had wandered out from one of the many rooms and started to rub up against her.

Lucy blinked and looked down and smiled. "Awww." She whispered. "How cute," She got down on her knees and hands to look at the Vulpix, she slowly lifted up a paw to let the Vulpix sniff her hand.

The ghost's grin grew. Perfect.

Her regular ears started to pull into her head and the fake Ninetails ears became real and twitched a bit. She didn't notice as she was focused on the Vulpix and was cooing as she moved to pet the Vulpix's curls

however she did seem to think the room had become a bit more noisy.

Cream colored Fur started to sprout all over her body.

She blinked as she felt a little warmer but she didn't care she could get something to drink or step out onto the second story balcony later on, this Vulpix... she looked up, where was his trainer or mother? She blinked, mother?

The Vulpix nuzzled into her again, as her face pulled into a muzzle much like that of a Ninetails.

She smiled and with her new tongue gave a small friendly lick on the cubs forehead. "Where's your trainer? or your mother?" She asked him, her voice sounding different a mix of Nintales and human.

"Mama...", the Vulpix had muttered to her, as a set of Nine Tails grew out from behind her.

Her fake set falling off and her shirt starting to strain from the changes, as well as her pants.

"Aww... you called me mama" She cooed as she felt stiff as if she had been in a very bad poster.

The little Vulpix jumped out of her arms and stood before her. Suddenly, she felt her own weight shift and as her body changed from a bipedal to a quadpedal form.

She yipped and promptly began to stretch out the kinks. "One moment, Momma needs to stretch dear."

She looked around suddenly and tucked her tails close to her, too many humans, why did she come to this party anyway?

As her hands and feet finally changed into paws, little Brock looked out as he saw his close friend, the other Vulpix, "Can I go play with her, mama?"

"As long as you don't let any nasty trainers catch you, I am going outside so I don't get under human paws, I rather not ruin anyone's night tonight." She whispered to him as she headed towards an open door and where she could enjoy the night air.

"Bye Mama!", Brock said cheerfully.

"Bye Brock, be safe, or I will have to use my powers and I rather not tonight."

* * *

The Sableye couldn't help but snicker at the human's costume. It was one of the most kiddish costumes he had ever seen. And the horns on the head were ridiculous. He clearly needed to get a makeover. The question was where to do it.

Gary moved slowly towards the door, no mansion was worth getting seen in this suit.

{Huh, what da'ya know, the kid actually doesn't need any encouragement. Guess he can't stand these kinds of costumes.}

Gary moved out the door as silently as possible.

{Time to have some fun} The ghost grinned maliciously as he warped away from the room and out to the front yard.

Gary moved slowly across the yard. a little wary of the stone figures all around

As Garry made his way deeper into the darkness, a creepy laughter could be heard emanating from all around.

"Where is that coming from?"

"Nothing a big strong dino like you has to worry about." Came the voice once again. The red eyes were following Garry as he paced around, causing the clearing to light up.

"Uh what are you talking about?" Gary said confused

"That is what you are isn't it? A horned giant lizard? Sounds like a dino to me. Prehistoric." The voice said chuckling.

Gary cursed himself for not bringing Umbreon.

"Oh don't worry about it, I'm gonna' make you stronger anyways. You'll be perfectly happy by the end of this. And you won't have to worry about being second to the boy you call Ash anymore."

Gary started running

"You won't get away that way you know." Even as the voice spoke, the walk seemed to stretch beyond him eternally showing the gargoyles lining the sides of the walk and the house itself. No matter how far he went, he could never get anywhere. "Face us, human. Show some dominance for once ... or have you grown too soft doing your little 'field research.'" The Sableye asked as it materialized, a sickly purple aura surrounding him as the red from the eyes of the gargoyles suddenly shot beams from their eyes that hit the human where he stood, causing him to shudder as energy started to pour into his body.

"What's happening?" Gary shouted as the energy poured in

"I'm going to make you look cool instead of this pathetic looking costume you're wearing."

Gary just stared on in horror

"Oh come on! You're such a sissy! No wonder Ketchum beat you. Tough up already!" Even as he spoke it, Garry's skin started to grow textured and darken as it turned blue like the costume he was wearing.

Gary stared down at his hands horrified

"Look, kid I can see you need to have your personality rewritten if you're gonna' freak out over something that small. You're a Dino, ya understand? Big, strong, powerful. You're not scared of anything ... got that?" Garry's body suddenly surged with the power as the energy rushed through him, causing his teeth to sharpen as the horns merged with his head and started to grow larger.

Gary was growling without realizing it

"Oh please. I'm supposed to be scared of that? You haven't even begun to change. I mean come on, you're trembling and i haven't even done anything to hurt you yet! Weeeeaaaak!" A red aura surrounded the tail of the costume and it suddenly was real, shifting and moving and lashing around. The new sensations flooding Garry's brain.

Gary let out a quite roar.

"I still don't see you doing anything. Then again, you can't can you? I'm not through with you yet. And you're too weak to resist me. Puny kid." The red beams continued their work as the scales climbed further, the suit becoming like a second skin. Garry's nails started to change, sharpening and lengthening, forming powerful claws.

Gary's eye's glared hatefully at the Sableye.

"Don't look at me like that wimp. You're still too small. Not to mention your body isn't the right proportion. Those legs are ridiculous! And where's the maw? Come on, kid, make it convincing here! And get some real muscle and bulk while you're at it!"

This time Gary let out a loud feral roar.

The roar startled some Zubat in the attic of the mansion and started a few night creatures, as well as making one man working alone jump a little.

Garry's body literally exploded into growth as the power surged through him. Soon he was Six Feet, then Ten, now he could reach above the second story. Still he was growing. His face pushed out into a powerful maw filled to the brim with sharp teeth. His head was filled with all kinds of conflicting thoughts as the euphoria kicked in from the sheer power his body now contained. His tail was several feet long and could easily do some major damage. The power ... the sheer power. Garry was lost in it.

Gary roared again this time many more flying Pokémon took flight. his tail swiped crushing gargoyles to powder.

"That's it kid. You're huge now. And you're a dino; you've always been a dino. You don't remember anything about being human do you? No ... you've always been this way ever since you hatched. But this size is a little too noticeable to those puny humans now isn't it? You need to take another form when you're not battling; something smaller, cuter. Something they would never suspect of being the powerhouse you are.

Gary snapped at the Sableye

"Hey! I'm just trying to help ya', you know. Chill out and relax. Besides, you want to have some humans to help take care of you right? It's a lot easier than living in the wild. Plus you can go off in the wild and have fun in your bigger form whenever ya want. You should be thanking me for keeping you from being such a sissy. Oh, and don't even try it. I'm already dead. Come on now, time to get cute. Trust me, it'll be a lot easier that way." And despite the dino's protests, he started to shrink once again, but this time he didn't stay human sized and he didn't revert. He just became smaller as his body shrunk, his eyes growing larger on his head as the horns became small and cute. A few cards and a strange looking device appeared next to the mini dino as he finished shrinking. "Well little guy, what should we call you? You got a name?" The Sableye asked the now more chibi creature.

The creature that had been Gary stared at the Sableye Inquisitively.

"Well then, I'll just call ya Ace. You'd better see if you can't find yourself some company little guy. I'd hate to think of what'd happen with you all alone. And don't forget to take these with you!" The strange device and cards floated in front of the little dino.

Ace looked at his tiny arms and back at the ghost his brow raised a bit.

"Carry em in your maw. It's not like you can damage 'em. Go on, the cards'll help ya' find a partner."

The dinosaur did so before turning to leave.

"Enjoy the party." Was the ghost's parting commentary as it faded out of sight to check on the other two ghosts.

* * *

Sparky and Ritchie had finished catching up with Ash and had begun to wander around the party, "The Party's a hit, isn't it, Sparky?"

The Mismagius quietly studied Ritchie's costume

"Chuuuuu!" Sparky agreed cheerfully to his trainer.

She wasn't sure what to make of it, examining the blue ear then the red ear.

Ritchie was dressed up half as a Plusle and Half as a Minun. He had thought it was a good idea, at least. His Pokémon... not so much. Getting the tail to look half-and-half was the hardest part

Sparky was feeling very smart in his new uniform. A cute little chauffeur getup with the hat and a cute little vest to wear on his front legs. Though Sparky was curious where Ash's Pikachu had disappeared to. He wanted to catch up and hear about what adventures he had been through since they last met.

Sparky and Ritchie heard a startled shout come from a room as a column of smoke pooled out the door. "listen is that a twerp I hear?" "It's singing to me loud and clear"

Sparky's fur bristled at the three annoying voices he would never forget, sparks were playing across his cheeks but so far he had been able to keep them from traveling to his costume and ruining it.

"...Hey...", Ritchie said, glaring, "...Come on, Sparky. Let's get them."

"Chu!" Sparky said in the affirmative as he leapt to his trainer's shoulders.

As they entered the room the door vanished behind them. The illusion dispersing quickly after.

"Wh-What the-?", Ritchie stammered.

"Pika PIKAA!" The Pikachu cried in surprise as the illusion disappeared. His ears were twitching left and right, searching for any sign of where the idiotic trio went.

Mismagius descended from the roof gracefully.

The Pikachu saw the Mismagius first, and bristled with electric power. "Piiiika PIKAAA! Pikachuuu!" The Pokémon made his demands of the Mismagius.

"What is it, Sparky?", Ritchie asked, not yet noticing the Mismagius.

"Welcome to my abode" she said. "I'm sorry but you aren't properly dressed for the occasion."

RItchie looked up at the voice, "Wh-What do you mean?"

In answer she touched his fur as it began to fuse with his skin. "your shape is all wrong"

"CHUUUUUUUU!" The Pikachu sent out a thunderbolt at the Mismagius for touching his trainer since he thought she was doing something to hurt his best friend.

Her eye's glowed as a safeguard appeared around her. The electricity harmlessly glancing off. a tendril touched Ritchie's face causing it to grow out into a muzzle.

Ritchie moaned out in a bit of pain as his face pulled out, "Unnngh... What are you doing...?"

"Piikaaa!" The chu looked on his friend and nuzzled him in apology for hitting him with his electricity accidentally.

"Fixing your form" she said, Ritchie started to look a bit strange as the Plusle side began to bulk up well the Minun side was begging to slim down. Behind him as the tail attached itself to his body the end began to split. leaving a plus and a minus.

"S-Sparky... I- I feel like I'm being torn apart...", Ritchie managed to say.

Even as the changes progressed the red half began pulling away from the blue half. the blue half becoming curvy. chest swelling as slowly a anthro-Plusle was forced away from the now anthro-Minun.

As the changes progressed, Ritchie's moans of pains started to change into screams... plural because two voices were now coming out of him, one masculine and older and one feminine (but also older)

"Piiiikaaaaa!" The Pokémon jumped down, not knowing what to do. His friend was being torn apart.

The Plusle side becoming large and broad-chested. His jaw seemed to lengthen and his brow got bigger as his eye brows thickened. as his clothing was torn in half it fell away revealing the Plusle morph as though he where an ancient statue. The Minun also possessed a statue form, though smaller and lithe with a curvy body and a decently sized chest. Her tail moved gracefully behind her.

The Pikachu looked at the two, not certain what was happening. "Pikaa?" The chu asked, wondering which was his friend now ... it was so confusing. Sparky's costume was still smoking with many holes in it from when he used his electric attack earlier.

As the Mismagius began to start gently rearranging their memories there torn clothing seemed to melt before crawling up there body's. Forming white clothing that was comfortable yet covering and meant for work in a kitchen.

"Piiiikapi." The pokémon pawed at the legs of both anthros. Tears forming in his eyes.

Mismagius smiled at yin and yang. As a last minute thought a blue yang symbol formed on the back of the Plusles neck. A pink yin symbol likewise forming on the Minun's

They had a hypnotized look in their eyes, as their memories started to rewrite themselves.

Mismagius turned to Sparky as the twins slowly began to recover. Lightly she let a tendril caress his back. causing him to rapidly begin to grow. Hind paws became foot like well forepaws became muck like human hands as his body distorted to a more human shape. His muzzle shortening slightly to allow for more expression as he grew to around the height of the Plusle. His uniform repairing itself and gaining a set of pants. His hat growing to fit his head.

"Pi-are chu do-aaaaa chu me!" Sparky asked as he began to change.

She rubbed his head as new memories began to re-write the old ones.

"Hey! Wati ... you ... I ... uhhhhh ..."

She smiled as she generously wrote in his long and happy relationship with yin.

As she continued to caress, he remembered working here as a servant in the mansion. He was a chauffeur. His job was to drive and help his master or mistress. He was a servant of the house ... and Yin ... ohhhhh that gorgeous Yin. He grinned as the memories of his relationship to her and her twin brother flooded his mind. When the last of the rewrite was finished he popped out of the trance and looked around. Upon seeing the Mismagius he quickly snapped to attention. "Is there anything I could do for you Madam?"

"Hello my dears" she smiled at them. "i just came to say goodbye to you"

Yang nodded, "We understand, mistress... Though I can't say that I'll be sorry to see Master Sableye leave."

"Must you go Madam?" Sparky asked. The Mismagius was very kind to him and he didn't want to see her leave.

She looked at Yin and Sparky with a tear in her eye. "I thought I would be around to see your wedding day. The house well no longer belong to us my dear. It is time that we leave"

"Couldn't you share it with the new owners Ma'am?" Yin asked with worry.

"I'm sorry but it is the rules, Sparky I remember when your father first brought you to the house to learn his trade. The little muddy scamp who ran in through afternoon tea" she leaned down and kissed his forehead.

Sparky was crying again as she leaned down to kiss him. It wasn't fair. He loved his mistress dearly. She was some of the only family he had left to him.

She turned to yin and yang. "I still remember when you two appeared on our doorstep after your parents passed away. your grandmother was a fine cook and a great friend. i promised her I'd look after you, now look at you." she turned to yin. "You've grown into a beautiful young lady, and you never failed to amaze me how you could change my tea" she kissed the Minun.

"Thank you, Mistress," Yin said.

"And big strong dependable yang, the dainties you always seemed to invent where always a joy to try" she said kissing the plusle. "Promise me you three well serve your new masters with every ounce of loyalty you did me" she said.

"Of course, Mistress," The twins said in unison, as they often did when spoken to simultaneously.

Sparky nodded his head, not trusting himself to speak.

"I love you all as though you where my own children. Take care of each other" she hugged the three of them. "Now I have much to do before the morning. Goodbye" she said slowly floating away.

"Goodbye ... mistress." Sparky said before walking over to Yin and wrapping his arms around her from behind.

* * *

Norman was not a happy Gym Leader. _What was Caroline thinking, stuffing me into this?_ he thought miserably as he hid under the punch table, hoping nobody noticed him.

His wife, in her endless quest to humiliate him, had managed to find him the most adorable and absolutely embarrassing Halloween costume imaginable, one even more so than the one she'd forced Max to wear.

{Hmm... The boy really idolized his father... it'd be a shame to separate them just because of that... Ah... that costume he's wearing... that gives me an idea}, the Gengar, still invisible to prying eyes, murmured to himself.

It was some cutesy character from one of those Anime his kids paid attention to but Norman never thought much of (at least, not when anybody was looking),

His only hope of getting out of this horrible party without losing face was if he could somehow sneak out without any of his peers noticing what he was wearing. Because if they saw him as he was now, they would mock him for it until the end of time. And beyond. And a bit after that, too.

Everyone else seemed preoccupied at the moment. They were apparently distracted by some commotion caused by some people who had dressed up as servants or something.

{Wow... the others are on top of their game to help set this up for me...}, Gengar noted.

Norman peeked out from under the tablecloth, hearing there was some kind of a disturbance. (Now's my chance!) he thought eagerly, pulling back under the table. He pressed his back and hands to the underside of the table, lifted with his legs, not his back, and started creeping towards the exit, carrying the table with him for cover.

He bumped into a few pillars and stepped on a lot of toes, and splashed punch all over the place, but since it was a Halloween party most people figured the table was just 'haunted' and left it at that.

The ghost made an unnoticed change to Norman, that prevented the costume from being removed - Norman would be in a great surprise when he made it outside.

He thought for a moment he'd run into a wall when he reached the exit, only to realize the door was too narrow for his table to fit under. Figuring this was as good a place as any to ditch it (and hoping he wasn't creating a fire hazard) he slipped out from under the table. Then he crawled back under the table and went out the other end, because he'd accidentally gone the wrong way and nearly gotten spotted.

A few minutes later, a number of narrow escapes, and a couple of sequences where he had to sneak past servers using a cardboard box, Norman finally made it outside. He sighed in relief, breathing in the cool night air, and reached for his zipper to remove his terrible, awful, horrible costume.

And then he found it wouldn't budge. He frowned and tugged on it harder. And harder. And harder still. It didn't work. _Oh great, the darn thing's broken. Now what?_

The world seemed to grow around Norman, as if he was getting smaller. In fact, that was exactly what was happening to him.

"Huh ... guess someone spiked the punch." Norman said as he brought his hand to his head to steady his sense of sudden vertigo.

Then he had realized that his head itself had changed size in proportion to the rest of his body. His hand then started to sink into his head, as if his head was that of a plush

"Wh-what the-?" Norman said as he quickly removed the pressure form his head.

Norman's hands and feet soon became ill defined. They were still obviously hands and feet, but, they looked a bit blobby.

"My hands ... what's happening?" Norman said as he raised them to his eyes.

Suddenly, the ears of his costume felt... filled. He could hear perfectly through the ears, hearing the party still going on from the inside. Suddenly, the tips balled up into fists- they could be moved like a new pair of arms and hands.

One of Norman's ears moved upwards to hear the party better, while the other moved around to his front side where it touched his little hands. "What the HELL?" He shouted.

"Heh heh... You should thank me," a Voice said from behind him.

Norman whirled around, his new ears being straightened out by the centrifugal force in his turn. It was a little clumsy since he wasn't used to having mainsails for ears, but he still bore his teeth in the direction he heard the voice.

The Gengar faded into existence, standing right up to him, his arms crossed.

"Whoa! GIANT GENGAR! I gotta' catch it!" Norman made a move to reach for one of the spare Pokeballs he always carried with him.

"...I'm not giant. You're just smaller."

Norman wasn't really listening as he kept looking with his massive ears for the Pokéball in question. "...know it's around here somewhere ..."

"Looking for these?", the Ghost said, holding onto his Pokéballs.

"HEY!" The little Norman responded as he felt around where he once had his belt. Now he felt only ... a cape? When did he get a cape?

"Surprised? I felt like I should give you some sense of your identity... Anyway, you should be thanking me. If my friends had it their way, you and your son would be separated, never to see each other again - and never to know that you had lost each other)

"My son? What did you do to him? Where is he?" Norman was angry now, and the throbbing red vein on his head was clear evidence of it.

"He has become an intergalactic Hero. Though at the moment, he's enjoying some downtime at the party. But one day, he will have to head back to the stars. I had decided to allow you to join him," the ghost had said.

"You really expect me to believe that?"

"Look at what I just did to you." The ghost said, calmly and reasonably

"I want to see him." Norman demanded of the ghost. Which is understandable. Despite how tough he may seem on the outside, he loved his son just as much as any father should if not more so.

The final addition to his ensemble was added, a large ring around his left ear.

"Hmm... You think you'd recognize him?", the ghost asked.

"Well, I should think I'd recognize my own son. His mom made him look absolutely ridiculous in that getup. I mean come on! Those ears are nothing like his real ones ... the stripes and fur coloration, his gloves, that long tail ... And his ... hair? No ... not hair; fur! Yeah ... He's a great friend and one of the best inventors I've ever seen. He's smart and strong and you'd better not piss him off or he'll come after you with his wrench." Norman was grinning now as he "remembered" about Max the Lombax. "We've been through a lot of scrapes, but that hunkajunk robot always could get us out again."

The Ghost nodded, a wide grin on his face, "That's good. Now Norman, he's in there. Act natural - as if your someone in a costume, rather than your living plush self. He'll play along, I'm sure."

"Hey, you're looking at a pro." Norman said, grinning a cocky grin before reaching up with his large ear and turning the knob of the door. "Hey ... thanks for the tip, bub."

"You're welcome, Norman."

* * *

"So everyone is inside?" Cassidy asked Butch. The pair where just outside the mansion waiting to strike.

"Yeah, according to the boss," Butch said.

A ghostly voice spoke thick with venom and hatred at seeing the two Rocket members. "Hello cassidy, hello Botch." Sableye materialized, his eyes flaming ... literally.

"Th-That's BUTCH!", Butch screamed.

"Shut up." The Sableye said before waving his hand and smashing the blabbermouth to the ground before levitating him and materializing a purple gaseous gag around his mouth. "Much better. Now ... you wanna piece of me too girlie?" The ghost didn't know why, but seeing humans in those uniforms REALLY pissed him off. Still, he recalled his promise to Agatha and was careful not to harm them too much.

"back off" Cassidy yelled.

"Or else WHAT?" the Sableye roared back at her. His teeth seemed to flash in the night and ... were they growing?

Cassidy couldn't answer.

"That's what I thought. This guy up there has more guts than you do. And you're both cowards! You two deserve each other." Suddenly the Sableye stopped. He was struck by an idea ... a terribly, wonderfully, awful idea. He grinned wickedly as he lowered Butch back to the ground, undoing the gag with a snap of his ghostly fingers. Then he slammed the two Rockets into each other and placed them on the ground together, their arms touching each other side by side.

Try as he might, Butch was unable to move in a direction away from Cassidy.

"Oh, this is only step one, kiddies. Soon you'll really have something to squack-errrr scream about." The Sableye said, chuckling darkly as a sickeningly dark purple and black glow surrounded the couple of rockets and their uniforms. There was the sound of straining leather as large bulges appeared on Cassie's right boot and Butch's left. The two were shifting uncomfortably and were constantly knocking each others' heads as they shuffled in a very uncomfortable manner.

Butch shouted a muffled ow at this.

Cassidy screamed as she tried to get away"

All that did was cause the two to fall and tangle all over each other, which worked to the ghost Pokemon's advantage since it caused the two to merge even further, their inner legs that were unchanged were sucked into their bodies as large, scaled, three-toed and clawed bird feet burst from the boots as their bodies began to merge and their masses to shift, their necks beginning to grow thinner and extend.

Managing to get the gag off of his mouth, Butch shouted, "What are you doing to us!"

The Sableye grinned viciously at Butch. "I'm making you into what you always try to steal and would even kill others for. You're going to be a Pokémon for the rest of your days. And even worse, you two are going to share that body, little Doduo."

Cassidy screamed loudly.

"Scream all you want birdbrain; no one can hear you. Oh, by the way Botch old boy, you should be pleased to know that you'll be the dominant part of your new body." The ghost continued as relentlessly, their bodies continued to merge, feathers beginning to grow over them as their clothes ripped and shredded apart.

"W-Wh-Doo-Duo! DODUO!" The head that was once Butch screamed out

"That's a good boy. Now for your partner to follow after you." The clothing was all but gone now as the heads grew out more and more. Lips pushed out into beaks as the pupils in their eyes began to swell and drive out the color, leaving black, beady avian eyes.

"Doduo!" Cassidy said wildly

"Hmmmmmm ... best not have you trying to alert anyone about something being wrong." The ghost said to himself. "Alright, listen up you two! I have one more thing for you before I let you go." He floated before the two heads. "Look into my eyes ... NOW!" His eyes glowed and pulsed red as he looked into the two sets of eyes.

Both heads did as instructed.

"You are a Doduo ... you have always been a Doduo. You were never human. You are a wild Pokémon. You have wandered too far from the woods. When I snap my fingers, you will awake as a complete 'mon with no memory of ever having been human. You will return to the wild and live in it as if you always had. And as a bonus, I give you the power to defend yourself in emergencies. You can transform a foe into one of your kind temporarily so that you may escape. Understand?"

Both Doduo heads nodded dumbly.

"Good." the ghost snapped his fingers. "Now wake up."

"DO?" head 1 asked as it woke up. It looked around, and noticed head two was still asleep. It pecked head 2 irritatedly.

"Duo" the second head said irratatedly

The two heads bickered for a bit before wandering off into the forest, away from the estate.

"I swear, the next one of those group members I see is going RIGHT to the spirit world!" The ghost fumed as he faded from sight.

* * *

Cynthia stood aside from the dancing and revelry holding a glass filled with punch and talking with an old acquaintance. Drake was a specialist on draconic lore and she loved to learn as much as she could, giving what pieces of history she had learned as well to add to his own knowledge base.

Drake was wearing a purple dragon costume. He dodged the question when asked about the peculiar color choice.

The costume Cynthia wore was similar to her Garchomp's coloration. However, the costume had clawed and scaled hands rather than wings. And the wings were protruding from the back of her suit. Two horns protruded from the upper portions of her costume's head and smiled good naturedly at her friend when he dodged her question about his choice for his costume. They even both had a laugh about how similar the costumes were in make.

The Mismagius looked at the two closely considering what to do. She smiled as a older looking door opened in front of the two. It had curved stone steps and when they looked a red orange flash appeared on the wall.

"How odd. I don't remember that being there when we were setting up for the party." Cynthia said as she rubbed her chin.

Drake nodded, "This is indeed strange. Shall we investigate?"

"We might as well. I don't think that we'll be missed too much as long as we're quick."

Drake nodded as he lead the way and opened the door.

"Ladies first?" Cynthia asked jokingly as Drake motioned towards the stairs.

"Of course," Drake said.

"Why thank you my good sir." She bowed fluidly with a fluid grace before she cautiously began to make her way down the stairs.

The lower they went the more it seemed like a dungeon then a mansion.

"I- don't remember them saying the Mansion was this deep."

"Neither do I. Do you think this is one of those odd events that occur? Perhaps something to do with a legendary?"

Finally they came to a massive room. the room was full of a miniature sea of gold and jewels. shining brightly from some incandescent light source.

"Well, I certainly don't know of any legendaries who horde treasure," Drake said.

"Oh my! It's beautiful! Just think of how much this can contribute to history. Some of these must be hundreds of years old." She said as she took one of the gems and held it up to the light.

Slowly the scales on her costume began to change from black to dark purple with pink in front.

"All the towns and the people who could also benefit from this money."

"The Pokémon centers could always use more money." She said thoughtfully as she took a fake clawed hand to her chin.

Another set of horns grew out of her jaw bones they where shorter then the ones on her head.

Drake picked up the gold to examine it. Having been a captain for a long while, he had been paid various ways, and thus could tell if gold was real or not.

The underbelly of drakes costume turned gold as the outer part turned light purple

"Hmmmmm ... how strange ... it looks as if these crystals are growing from the floor itself, but how's that possible?" She ran a hand along the pulsing surface.

He bit the gold a bit, "It's real alright... How could they have missed this?"

"Who knows? There must be a reason though."

Light purple markings seemed to paint themselves across the mask of her costume then they started to glow. The tail tip and wing hands turned into silver blades. While drakes tail tip became a golden spear like head. The head of the costume gained a golden blade of backwards facing spikes. The wings of drakes costume turned pure gold. the membranes seemed almost too fine.

"Oh my! Captain ..."

Cynthia was cut off as her head began to merge with her mask.

"Yes, Cynthia?", he asked, not looking at her.

Cynthia brought her hands up to feel her head, her sight temporarily cut off by the merging that was occurring.

As Cynthia couldn't talk she couldn't mention as the years melted away from drake well his body began to merge with the suit. Cynthia's own body began to merge with her suit. a few minutes later she fell forward as she could not longer walk two legged. drake seemed to have yet to reach this stage.

"Ahh... I... Cy-Cyn-Cynder?", Drake managed to say in his new voice. Drake knew that wasn't her name... but he couldn't think of her name... why? Why? And what were these feelings he was getting?

Drake finally fell forward as his head began to merge with the costume, Cynders transformation finished.

"D-dr-Spyro ...?" Cynthia shook her head, confused at the alien thoughts going through her head. What was happening? Did the crystal have something to do with this?

"Nnnghhh... Cy-Cyn-Cynder? What's happening to us?"

"I ... I don't know ... The crystals must have something to do with it ... but ... I don't know how ..." Cynder shook her head. She went by another name at some point ... she knew she did, but she couldn't remember it now. And when she looked over at Spryo ... she couldn't help but feel strange around him as a mixture of emotions rose in her breast.

The two of them gradually grew in size. Eventually becoming fully grown dragons. the gold seemed to no longer be valuable for any monetary means, but more comforting like a mattress

"I-... Cynder... what do you last remember?", Spyro said, confused.

"Nnnnhhhhh Spyro ... I feel so tired ..." Cynder said all of a sudden. The pulsing aura of the crystals felt comforting now rather than frightening. And she felt more at home in this little cave. "We ... we were ... looking for something ... exploring weren't we? I ... I don't remember."

"Well, Cynder, if you feel tired, we'll just rest here. Nothing else matters now to me. Just you."

"Oh, Spyro ... I love you." Cynder nuzzled the purple dragon as she laid down on the gold, the pulsing crystals very comforting now. "And I'm sure our new baby will too." She said smiling as she dropped the bomb on her mate.

"Yeah, I love you to- wait, what! Baby!" Spyro managed to say, as we change scenes.

* * *

Lance smiled as he walked around the party smiling at people. girls swooning, guys staring eviously. gym leaders not daring to make contact, other elites staring enviously. it was good to be loved.

{Hmmph. The Rockets vanish from Kanto and Johto for a while and he gets a big head...}, Gengar said, upset, {How about a personality adjustment...?}

The Ghost conjured an illusion of a member of Team Galactic, that only Lance could see.

"Come in Jenny this is Lance" he mumbled into his hidden radio.

The ghost created some interference, making it so no radio signals could leave the area.

Lance sighed before heading over himself.

The member vanished into a room.

Lance followed with a hand on his Pokebelt.

Oddly, when he entered the room, it was a bathroom, with no way out... and there was no Team Galactic agent. Had he imagined it?

Lance looked around cautiously.

Suddenly, the door behind him locked audibly.

"Wha?" Lance said turning around

"You know," a voice echoed, "Normally, I'd feel a bit guilty about this... but you seem to be getting a big head."

"Who's there?" Lance gripped his Pokeball close.

"I'm not a fool. If I revealed myself, you'd just throw that ball. That's an interesting costume, by the way... I love how your blonde hair flows out of the pilot's cap like that." As he narrated to the Elite, his body altered to match what he was saying.

"Cowardly ghost" Lance said

"Think what you want... By the way, that's an expensive Collar around your neck. Solid gold?"

"What are you..." Lance trailed off as he noticed the new collar.

"Your white fur looks nice and warm. Must be handy when you're flying so high in the atmosphere," the ghost said.

"Stop it" Lance said through his teeth

The ghost laughed, "Why? I'm just complementing you on your appearance. And those gems in your gloves look really expensive as well. I like how your ears poke out of little slits in your pilot's helmet."

"Dragonite…" Lance called as he threw a Pokeball

The ghost suddenly levitated the Pokéball, "Nuh-uh... Look at how large you are... do you really think that this room will be comfortable with the two of you in it? Both of your heads would hit the ceiling! And your wingspan is over twice his's size!" Lance's wings, once a costume, twitched. "And Lance, you should move away from the door. Your large and powerful tail CAN'T be comfortable scrunched up like that."

Lance growled finding himself forced away from the door.

"You know, for a dragon, you have a long neck. And a small head. No no, it's not a bad thing. I'm just saying it's amazing that you're so intelligent and agile with your upper body looking like that," The Gengar said, still holding Dragonite's Pokéball. "And I find it amazing that you can fly so majestically with your wings pierced like that," The Gengar said as he finally faded into view. "Shiron?", the ghost asked, seeing if Lance's mind was ready yet.

The dragon looked at the Gengar confused.

"Hmm... You know... Now that I look at you... You're awfully fat for a legendary wind dragon, aren't you?" the Gengar questioned.

The dragons head lowered as it blushed and tried to hide, a task not possible currently

"I'm sorry. Come on, let's get you and this Dragonite out of here. I'm sure the two of you could use some fresh air. Fly around in the sky above the mansion until your Saga shows up," Gengar said. The ghost placed a hand on Shiron's arm.

Shiron nodded slowly.

"Just act natural as you head through the front, the humans won't notice anything if you don't make yourself stand out. Just give it a bit. I know exactly who your Saga is."

Shiron nodded.

The ghost opened the door, allowing Shiron room to leave. At the same time, his hands started to glow, creating a strange device in one hand, and a crystal with an image of Shiron in the other. A Package appeared and he placed both objects inside, "He'll find these when it's time." And with that, the package was whisked away. He then followed Shiren out into the front yard of the Mansion.

Shiron flew into the air and lazily flew around

The ghost released Dragonite, who joined his former master in the skies. WIth that, he disintergrated the Pokéball, it no longer having a purpose in existing, "Well, that was fun..."

* * *

"Still don't know what I'm doing here...don't need a new place like this that badly." Frank muttered to himself as he stepped inside of the old manor. There'd been news of a costume contest with the grand prize being the place itself, and he'd come prepared with an interesting werewolf costume. It resembled Jon Talbain from an old game he'd been fond of, only dark red where it should've been blue. Perhaps it was because he liked the color better, but it seemed to just work better for him.

The Sableye looked down on the human with the werewolf costume. It was very interesting to say the least. He hadn't seen a classic like that in a long time. The ghost found he liked this kid. {Meh, what the heck, he'll probably enjoy being a wolf anyways and being human is overrated.} With that, the Sableye boldly blinked into existence in front of the human in question. "Hey there, wolf man how's it hangin'?"

"Uh...fine, I guess? I'm just here for the contest, though I'm guessing that much is obvious from the get-up I've got on. You know where the contestants are supposed to go?" He didn't bat an eye at the talking ghost-type - they were supposed to be able to talk if they paid enough attention to humans and the like, so for all he knew, it was just a trainer's Pokemon that had gotten curious.

{Perfect.} The ghost thought devilishly. "Yeah, right this way." The ghost floated away towards a side door and passed through it.

"Hey, wait up, man! I can't really move too fast in this thing." Frank grumbled and began to follow the ghost, not really suspecting anything was amiss. Ghosts were a little flighty at times - though when one was dead, he supposed there wasn't much to worry about missing.

The Sableye popped out of the door again. "You coming or not?" Naturally, he made it so that their conversation was filtered from the consciousness of the other partygoers so that the two could be alone.

"Hold your horses! I told you I couldn't move that quick in this thing." The door was opened in a moment or two more and Frank entered the room, looking around. Seemed he wasn't the only one there, but when a prize like this was up for grabs, a crowd was to be expected.

A few moments later the door was sealed and covered with the amplified power of the ghost Pokemon. That was immediately followed by the crowd in the room fading away. "Sorry about that, but if you want to win, you're going to need my help. I know how you humans don't tend to trust ghosts like me so I kinda' had to trick ya' in order to get ya' alone."

"I still kinda' don't trust you, but it's not like I've got anything to lose by trying. What exactly can you do that'll help me win this thing?"

"Just watch and be amazed." The ghost said, grinning as a purple aura surrounded the human in the costume. As Frank stood there, he shivered a little at the tingling sensation while the fur began to merge with his body. The mask was feeling weird as well and when he moved his jaw, the mask moved with it.

"What the...heck are you doing to me?" Sure enough, the mask was feeling wierd, especially when he tried speaking - the muzzle seemed to be moving more and more every second when he tried to speak into it. And the odd aura wasn't helping any.

"Making ya' fit the part. You'll thank me by the end of it don't worry." Next the ears began to twitch on the costume as the larger paws began to clench and move freely. There was a slight cracking sound as the human's feet switched to a digitrade and the special supports used on the costume were no longer necessary. Everything was becoming real. Even the tail was starting to move, albeit tucking between the former human's legs rather than wagging in happiness.

"Gnghgrrrr...why, though..." The costume seemed to be becoming real...it sure FELT real as he patted his right arm, feeling the fur underneath it. He didn't know what was going on or why it was happening to him, but it certainly wasn't something Frank had expected at all.

"Oooooh, here comes my favorite part!" Up until now, the ghost had focused on making the suit merge with the body. Now it was time to make this human really fit the part. With a rush of energy and sheer primal power, the muscles on the former human went through a major growth spurt, the body once lean and at about five and a half to six feet shot up to about seven and a half while the arms swelled to look as if the wolf had been in the gym his whole life. His legs swelled with him, the calves growing large, perfect for effortless running on two feet, or on all fours. Last but not least, the false eyes of the mask merged with the human's shining out a feral blue and glowing in the darker room. It was truly a fearsome yet magnificent sight to behold. Suddenly, a large window appeared in the wall revealing the starry sky. A single cloud drifted by and as it passed, the full moon in all its glory was revealed, shining into the room with its gentle yet powerful rays and bathing it with an intense, yet soft white light.

"Hngnghhraahha...rghaaaah...ARROROOOOOOOOOOOO!" Frank couldn't hold back a howl as the rush of instincts and sensations flooded his body as the costume became less fiction and more reality, re-making him into a rather impressively built werewolf.

"See? What'd I tell ya'? You make one awesome looking werewolf. You'd be a dead ringer for Jon if it weren't for the whole red. You could be his brother though."

"Yeah, but why did you do this? I mean, I'll probably win looking like this, but it's not like I could leave the house either way. People tend not to like werewolves too much."

"Oh don't worry, they won't bat an eyelash. Besides, this is my place. You just have fun. Nobody'll try to hurt you as long as you're under my protection. I'll even help you to find your brother afterwards. You did say you were looking for him weren't you? Big werewolf, blue fur?"

"Hmm...Yeah...I was looking for him. Why, you seen Jon around here someplace? And thanks for letting me crash here."

"Yeah, I met him a couple of Halloweens ago. I'm sure I can help ya find him after the party's over. And like I said, it's no problem. My friends and I always enjoy having fun on Halloween, and we never say no to guests in need. Why don't you go on out there and have some fun? You deserve a good rest after all you've been through. I'm sure you'll meet a lot of people who admire you. Go on, I'll be right behind you after I attend to a few more guests."

"Uh...thanks. Just hope the guy's still around, you know? I never really knew him as much of a mooch, you know? Probably is helping out somehow around here someplace. But thanks for the tip...I could use a nice party after all the traveling I've been doing today."

With that, the door opened once more and the werewolf made his way out into the party to relax and have a little fun.

* * *

Dawn blinked and looked around. "Oh come on, where did Piplup go?" She sighed. "Most likely looking for Ash or Pikachu." She readjusted her costume and began to hunt for her missing Pokemon.

The Mismagius smiled admiring the costume. smiling she made the visage of a Piplup stumbling into a room.

"Piplup." She called out and raced after the missing Piplup a look of annoyance on her face.

When she entered the room the large door closed locking behind her.

"Piplup?" She startled and looked behind her in fear.

The Piplup faded as the Mismagius entered the room. "Hello my dear" she said

"Eeeep" She squeaked as she moved back in fear. "Uh, h..h... hello." she tried to smile.

"Beautiful costume" she said

She gulped a little. "Th... Thank you."

"What are you my dear?"

"Uh... well," She shuffled her feet a little embarrassed and muttered the answer.

"It is only us here" the Mismagius assured.

"A, a..." she muttered it out again but this time she could catch it.

"Your almost there"

She took a deep breath. "Succubus."

"Do you desire beauty?" the Mismagius asked.

"A little, but I think I am pretty enough at the moment."

"Oh it's okay to admit you insecurities with me" Mismagius said.

She did nod a little. "A little. I would like a little more beauty so I don't have to use make up."

"I can make you beautiful" the Mismagius said. her tendrils lightly tracing dawns skin.

"But what is the price? I know these stories they come at a cost, and weighing things, I am happy as is."

The Mismagius focused causing her desire to come out.

"I- I...", Dawn stammered.

"You'd be more beautiful than anyone else" the Mismagius promised.

"I- I would?", she asked.

"No one would be able to take there eye's off you" she said "all it would cost is to remove a silly little label"

"What Label?", Dawn asked, a bit more anxious.

"human" Mismagius whispered.

She shivered, "O-Okay..."

The Mismagius grinned as purple fur with yellow diamonds began to sprout on her body even as it is her body aged slightly and began to fill out. filling the negligee she was wearing for her costume as it became more detailed and slightly more revealing a long furry purple tail grew out behind her with a spade like tip. Her face pulled out into a small dainty muzzle yellow fur covering the bottom of her jaw and all the way down her front. Her eye's changed to a dark red as pink fur covered her eye sockets. her ears appeared a mix of a cat's and bat wings being triangular but ribbed lightly with bones.

Dawn started to moan a bit sensually.

Her forearms covered with yellow fur, hands becoming small dainty and paw like, each finger sprouted long claws. despite their small size she could feel much strength in her arms. her feet underwent similar changes becoming digigrade paws. Two slits opened in her negligee letting two large purple bat wings grew out behind her. Slowly her mind changed, becoming darker and more sensual. Her breasts grew tell they almost strained against there containment. Her butt also swelled outwards. Her waist shrinking and her hips growing out. Mismagius floated away from the Liepard succubus smiling. "Now was that not worth the deal?" she asked

"Mmm... Yes, it was...", The succubus moaned, "I think I'll be having fun tonight..."

"Remember to choose you victim closely" the Mismagius warned. "Your condition is contagious after all"

"Really?" she grinned, "How exciting."

"Don't you have a friend out there who could not make it tonight?" the Mismagius asked. "Three in fact?"

She grinned.

* * *

Torterra studied the mansion casually as he walked along, Squrtle resting on his back.

Squirtle wearing a blue Bandanna tied around his face as a mask, and brown pads on his elbows and knees, relaxing under the tree, nodded, "Yeah, you think Ash'll win this place?"

"Only if Misty does to, or else I'll toss him out after her" Torterra joked. He was wearing the same thing as Squirtle, except his mask was Purple.

"Hey guys! Wait up! You know I'm not as fast as you are!" Torkoal shouted from behind, tears streaming down his eyes and smoke flowing from his stack like normal. You can see where this is going - his Mask was Orange.

The Squirtle sweatdropped and chuckled.

{Hmm... Interesting. I thought it'd actually be a challenge to make the Master's students, and they practically run into me!}, the Gengar chuckled.

"...Huh?", Squirtle said all of a sudden, and hopped off of Torterra's back.

"What is it Squirtle?" the Torkoal asked, concerned and a little nervous.

"What's wrong?"

Squirtle turned to his likewise "dressed" friends, "I- I thought I heard my Squad. I think they're in trouble!"

"What would they be doing here though? Didn't you say they were in a fire brigade in Kanto?"

"We better take a look"

The three turtles nodded and headed towards the source of the noise.

Gengar chuckled silently and teleported to the room, not expecting what was going to happen next himself.

Marshal, Elite Four member from Unova, blinked in shock as he looked around. "Okay... where are those Pokémon going? I got to keep an eye on them." he began to move and follow them. He was dressed up with just the pads and a red mask, but with his clothes, it made it a bit hard to figure out that his outfit was of similar origin.

The Attic was far too cluttered to be able to get a good look at all at once. It was incredibly possible that a large group of Squirtle could be in the attic, wanting help. "Guys?", Squirtle called out.

"Something is fishy"

"Helloooo?" Torkoal called out, more than a little timidly. He felt like drawing back into his shell.

"Helloooo? Little guys? You up here?" Marshal called as he ascended up the flight of stairs. "Hello?" His head popped up into the attick.

{Wow! Just my luck.}, Gengar said, as he shut the door behind Marshal, who was also dressed wearing similar bands, but apparently was too embarrassed to wear a full costume. The ghost grinned and materialized the weapons that the turtles that the four were dressed as were known to wield, glowing and hovering in front of them.

"What the-?" Marshal exclaimed as he was rocketed into the attic by the force of the closing door, landing on top of some soft bundles of old clothes. He was even more confused on seeing the strange glowing weapons floating in the air.

"Hey... is that...?", Squirtle trailed off, sort of mesmerized by the glowing pair of glowing katana in front of him

"Hey ... Squirt-errrrr ... dude are you okay?" Torkoal asked in an uncharacteristically bold manner, the glowing nunchucks holding him in their sway. He could just picture the fun he'd have swinging them around ... that is if he had hands.

Torterra's vines caressed the Bo staff.

"What ... what's happening?" Marshal asked in a very confused manner.

Physically the four started changing a bit. Their skin all turned Green - Torterra's became a sickish yellowy green, and the turtles started to change in size, their bodies growing large muscles and Torkoal and Torterra becoming smaller and bipedal.

"Hey! I got hands! Duuuude!" Torkoal said as he grabbed the nunchucks. "This is so totally radical!" He started to whip them around, getting the feel of them. They felt like old friends.

"Are my plants sick?", Torterra panicked

Squirtle quietly grasped the katanas as his shades fell out of their hiding place in his shell.

He turned his head, still not noticing his shades, "You sound... a bit weird, Torkoal."

"Y-y-you can talk!" Marshal said, shocked at what was going on, and backing away in fear from the glowing weapon and the three changing turtles.

"Awwwww c'mon Leo, I'm not that different ... Wait… Why'd I call you Leo?" The torkoal who was rapidly changing now scratched his head with his three fingers in a confused manner.

"Dude, like just chill out! Your plants aren't dying. Get a grip man." Torkoal said as he whipped his nunchucks around jokingly and bapped the turtle on the head with them lightly.

Marshal's clothes started to feel tight, and suddenly, his gi/hoodie shredded as a large turtle shell burst out from it. He also found he was able to completely understand the Pokémon.

"M-my clothes!" Marshal didn't know what to feel, scared at the fact that he was changing, or mad that someone had just ruined his favorite form of dress. And as he clenched his hands into fists, he couldn't help but feel the urge to hit something ... or someone.

Squirtle swung one of the Katanas in practice. As he did so, his body started losing some of it's more Squirtle exclusive traits, losing his tail, as he bulked up to the same size as Marshal, and his large red eyes shrunk down and became brown.

"Hey Donny! When'd you get so big!" Tor-no ... Mikey asked the changing Torterra as his body became completely green and yellow. He was filled with energy and he felt like playing and messing around. He was realy coming out of his shell all of a sudden, metaphorically speaking.

Torterra started to shrink considerably, the plants and rocks on his back pulling into his shell, returning him into a normal turtle... as normal as a humanoid, muscular turtle would be, that is. Meanwhile, Torterra's Green skin became a more bluish-green, and the holes excluding smoke vanished from his shell.

{Hmm... The Turtles are coming along fine, but the former human's going to need some... persuison...}, the Gengar thought

"Quiet, Mikey" Don said

The Ghost started to remold Marshal's memories a bit, holding back his inhibitions...

That tone Torkoal was using was really starting to grate on Marshal's nerves and he kept feeling a pulsing sensation in his head. It was driving him crazy! He felt like he was going to snap ... but he had to maintain control ... he had to keep his cool. He had to ... had to ...

{You want to find your Master, don't you? Let it go..}

Squirtle, or rather Leonardo, walked up to Marshal and placed a three fingered hand on his shoulder/shell. Doing this caused his changes to accelerate and he himself to get hands that only had three fingers.

"Get offa' me!" Marshal replied rudely to the turtle. Great ... now he'd lost his fingers. He was seriously feeling pissed off now as his skin turned a dark, dark green. His hair was retracting as the shell hardened its plates. Then that annoying turtle came up to him. "Hey Raph, what's wrong with ya? I thought you always liked beatin' stuff up." Torkoal, now Michelangelo grinned his usual smug and teasing grin at his "older brother."

"I ... I'm not ... a turtle ... I'm not ... I'm ... I'm ... I'm ..."

"Well you're not a tortoise" Don added.

The Gengar sighed. He hated to resort to violence, but... Suddenly, the Sais started to move, and flew straight at Marshal.

Marshal jumped into the air and grabbed the weapons as they came swooshing past, the energy flashing into his body and through his mind, finishing any physical changes that were yet lacking and completing his transformation physically into a ninja turtle. He was barely hanging on by a thread to his old personality and self and the strain was showing. One little push more and Raph would be in the house.

"Man Raph, I really must've done a number on ya if you're that dazed. That oughta teach you not to mess with the battle coliseum champion huh? Or at least not come at him with little pointy forks." Mikey said with his usual goofy and mocking grin.

"That ... is ... IIIIITT! Your shell is mine ya' hear me Mikey!" With a yell of primal rage, Raph lunged after his little brother.

On instinct don grabbed Raph in a full nelson.

"Raph. Calm down. You should know Mikey says things without thinking them through," Leonardo said, "Mikey, you need to apologize."

Raph was still struggling to get out of Donny's grasp, but when he couldn't he managed to finally calm down a little bit. At least enough to slightly forgive the clown. Though still not enough to not want to pound some sense into him, or noogie him into submission.

Don made sure Raph was calm before letting him go gently

Raph was still breathing deeply, but he was doing his best to reign in his anger. It always was his weak point.

"Look Raph, it was just a joke alright? I mean, come on ... don't give me a .. NO NO NO! NOOOOOOOO!" Mikey cried out as Raph gave him the noogie of the century. Then he looked at his brothers.

"Hey, he deserved it!" he said in his defense before letting him go.

"If Donatello's intel was right, Master Splinter should be somewhere in this place. Whether he's safe or not... I can't exactly say," Leonardo said, now that his brothers were paying attention. "Thankfully, it being Halloween, it'll be a little easier to look for him than it would otherwise. But we should still be careful. Especially because we came in from the attic and not the front door."

"I think we're in the presence of an ectoplasm phenomenon" Don said fiddling with some small machine

"English Donny, English!" Raph said, exasperatedly. "You know i don't speak geek."

{Uh-oh... I forgot about him having gadgets like that...}, the ghost said, deciding it was a good time to leave.

"A ghost", Don said bluntly.

"Meh ... it's not like we can't take em. I mean come on, what haven't we fought?"

Leonardo grabbed the familiar looking shades when the others weren't looking and put them away in his pouch

* * *

Sabrina sat in her char practicing her spoon bending for the benefit of some of the younger ones present. conversation was useless to her as she already knew everything she needed about everyone present. she new that the moment they entered.

Sabrina, although cured of her malady with her inner child running amuck, was still rather dark and gothic in her mental state. Being a powerful psychic is a double edged sword, and she could feel that edge every day. To show the way she felt she decided to choose a creature of similar design. She had placed makeup on her face to give her a bit more of a bestial appearance while she had glued on false ears and a muzzle to add to the effect. Her hands were still rather normal, the nails slightly sharper, but not adversely so. She wore metal knuckles over her hands more so to look more intimidating. And she had a false tail hanging limply from the rear of her costume. The whole effect was that she had a somewhat bestial appearance but was still human. Putting on the illusion of being more worldly and physically oriented rather than mentally. It helped her to feel a little better as she saw the people marveling at her costume and sensed their awe. Her long purple hair helped to accent the costume all the more. She looked even more beautiful to the eyes that followed her. Something she wasn't used to getting with her normal reserved air. She looked almost dainty ... now that she was dressed in such old fashioned garb. She seemed almost royal with her regality.

Sableye looked on the gym leader with a baffled expression. Even he was taken aback by her looks. But at the same time, he could feel her longing and her pain. It called to him. And as he looked on her he had a sudden glimpse of another young woman of similar looks. It would be perfect for her. And it would be an act of mercy. An unusual act for him, but even the evil Sableye could feel pity. The Sableye slowly descended since to try to trick such a powerful psychic would be rather pointless anyways. She probably already sensed his presence.

Kadabra could sense the presence of the spirit and teleported in front of him in an attempt to protect Sabrina.

"I need to rest" Sabrina said dispersing her audience when they were out of range. "Do not think because you are a ghost and a dark type that I well be taken by surprise spirit" Sabrina said

"It never crossed my mind." The Sableye replied honestly.

"let him speak Kadabra. Haunter already has a Shadow Ball aimed right at his eye if he tries anything"

"That hurts you know. Though I suppose for one who is royal it makes sense to have a guard." The Sableye said, bowing to the gym leader.

"Do not try your mind games with me Sableye I can sense your attempts to work on my memories"

"I can't exactly help it. You know how it is with us spirits. Once we've been riled up we need to take action. Besides, I'm trying to help you. I know how painful being as powerful a psychic as you can be. What I propose is giving you the ability to keep the voices out."

"Y...you can get rid of them?" she asked

"I could make it so that you will only be able to read the minds of others when you wish to. And you will hear the thoughts of spirits as well, but only when you choose to use the power. You will be able to communicate with the dead if you wish as well."

{M-Mistress, I wouldn't believe him.}, Kadabra said.

"It would be wrong of me to not inform you that there is a price. For you and for your companions if you would have them remain with you."

Sabrina turned to haunter questioningly.

"You are a ghost my friend can we trust him?" she asked.

"That depends on his actions in his previous life. We often carry our old personalities with us."

{You mean like how you were a cruel hearted trickster who ended up getting some people seriously injured with your pranks?}, Kadabra said.

"You wanna' go psychic boy?"

{No point in it.}

Sabrina ignored the bickering before looking at the Sableye, "and what where you like in your past life?"

"Can't really remember. My grave marker was destroyed long ago. And another was desecrated only recently. You can see it already though. Our memories are tied to those stones. Though something tells me that you think I've done well in most of what I've done."

Sabrina pondered the Sableye's words for almost ten minutes before speaking. "very well"

"But how can we know he wasn't a criminal or something worse?", Kadabra said

Sabrina looked at the Sableye "well you allow me into your mind?" she asked

"Do you even need to ask?" The Sableye returned, though nodded his assent. He didn't think it would do much good since he couldn't really remember much about his life. But perhaps this girl could find something he couldn't.

Sabrina concentrated, with the Sableye willing to co-operate his dark type immunity was not blocking her. She stopped after a few moments. "I can't speak for your life, but your intentions are honest, I trust you"

"I'm glad to hear it. It makes it much easier than trying to overpower your Pokémon, which might I add, I could do if I had to. Though only tonight." Even as he spoke, the two Pokémon were brought closer and closer to their mistress floating in the air as a purple and black aura surrounded the three. "This will tingle, but it shouldn't hurt."

{H-Hey, don't I get a say in this?} Kadabra asked.

Even as he spoke, the muzzle and the tail started to fuse with her skin, the seams disappearing from her and making her costume look more realistic as her tail shifted on its own. The two Pokémon were squirming in the air as they began to shrink. "And no, you don't. And for the record, the reason why is because you're a real jerk."

Sabrina laughed for the first time since ash visited it was a pure joyous laugh.

"My goodness, did I tickle your funny bone Princess?" The Sableye asked, a little shocked since he hadn't started on her memories just yet.

"It just feels freeing" Sabrina said

"I haven't done anything to your gifts yet. But that'll change soon. First, let's get to work on your Pokémon here. Kadabra, Haunter, I'm gonna' make you two powerful, but you will have to take a hit in size." Even as he spoke, the two started to shrink and little protrusions came from their heads. Kadabra's two protrusions on his head merged into one as they bent violently backwards to form a zigzagging bolt pattern. Fortunately, no pain was involved. Haunter's pointed head protrusions started to lengthen and push outwards, forming a long scarf-like protrusion, floating behind him. Their hands and arms began to withdraw into their bodies as they started to float on their own power. As the Sableye returned his focus on Sabrina, her eyes were closed and a contented peaceful smile was on her face, tears of joy were flowing down her face as her body continued to change, the fur glowing and becoming realistic and a purple glow surrounded her as the powers of her mind and spirit were altered so that she could not only control them, but so that rather than constantly hearing voices, she could choose when to listen in. The silence was the most beautiful thing she had ever experienced. As a bonus and gift to the gym leader, Sableye decided to let her keep her telekinetic powers so that she could show off for fun with the little ones and help them in turn to grow and learn to use their abilities happily.

Sabrina seemed content as the beloved silence ensued

"I'll even add a bonus for you. You can keep your old memories and have the new set as well. Then you can choose to push the old ones back whenever you need to and set a call back time so you never lose your old self, Princess." The ghost bowed to the woman as memories flooded into her of the beautiful city that she lived in. She was royalty there, and the city itself was filled to the brim with beast men. She remembered her companions, the Jupiter Djinni that had joined with her to make her stronger. But she also remembered being a gym leader with her pokemon. She remembered having an older brother who always looked after her, but she also remembered her father in this world. It was odd having two lives in her mind, but it felt somehow ... natural to her.

"Thank you" there were tears in her eyes.

Her eyes had also changed and were now an azure purple. They were clear of the pain and burden that she had carried for so long. "Now we must finish with your friends, Princess Sveta." He said, grinning since he couldn't blink with his gewel like eyes. "As for you two, I don't know what I'll do to you two. You should at least get along a little better since you're all on the same team. Do you mind if I make it so they actually don't get at eachother's throats Sabrina?"

"Do as you wish" Sabrina said happily.

"Is this realy necessary?" The Haunter asked. "I like being like this. Besides, I don't wanna look all cute! You'll still be a spirit, and yes, it's necessary. Besides, I think you'll like it. You'll be able to eat food again and all that other fun stuff. And you'll be able to feed on nature as well of course." Two small legs grew out from the haunter's body as it grew more solid and less vaprous. His eyes were no longer red as they swelled and grew, his mouth disappearing and leaving only a line along his eyes as his his own eyes turned purple to match the rest of his body. HIs head was a light purple matching the color of his mistress' fur while the lower torso remained dark like his original coloring. "Much better."

The Kadabra smirked.

"What're you smiling at cutey?" The Sableye asked as the Kadabra shrunk smaller and smaller, his hands retracting with his spoon as the rest of his body seemed to puff out as if it were filling with air. His hands were all that were left protruding from his body as the fingers morphed and merged to form a spiky bolt-like design in light purple. A green bolt was trailing form his back in the form of a small tail. Two stubby legs were protruding from beneath as his eyes turned green. "There we go. You two are all set. You should also be getting a second set of memories, but I won't erase the old ones. that'll be up to your mistress to decide later." With that, the three were released as the Sableye floated before Sabrina. "So what do you think?"

"It's wonderful" she said "I'd hug you if you had a physical form"

"And I'd blush if i could right now. Why don't you three go out and enjoy the party? That surprisingly tired me out."

They left eagerly

* * *

Wake had set up everything as good as he could for his neice and that Ash kid. Despite her denials, he was pretty sure of her feelings. And Ash's feelings were about as obvious. The man was wearing a Luxray-like suit, and it was a bit raggedy and itchy. He had worn it a previous year, but with all that he had done to set up Ash and Misty to get the same costume to up their moments together, he didn't have time to wear a new costume. He scratched at his mane.

The Mismagius smiled as Wake vanished in a misdirection illusion. His mane changed to a light yellow brown as it became real.

Wake's itching became a bit more extreme. He had no knowledge that anything had changed, just that the mane was now itching like unwashed hair rather than like an uncomfortable costume.

The fur gradually changed color without wakes notice from blue and black to light brown. There was a burning sensation as scars seemed to appear over the fur.

Wake clutched a noticeable scar around his chest, "Argh... Why would these old scars hurt all of a sudden?" he wondered, his memories seamlessly changing with the rest of him

His mask changed the muzzle becoming broader and full of sharp pointed teeth. His face seemed old and battle weary. His tail changed to brown as the star on the end was replaced by a ragged tuft of fur. it swayed a bit as a pair of ragged pants formed around his legs.

He nearly tripped at his newly formed pants. He caught himself though, "...Ugh. I better not have ripped them."

On his left arm a mix of leather and steel formed a tight fingerless glove. spring loaded 17 inch spikes formed under the top of the wrist covering. the spikes where the only part that wasn't either rusty or torn.

Wake flexed his hands a bit. He knew that he had to be here, but not getting to fight was getting to him. His knuckles cracked as he did so.

His hands grew long curved claws as his feet flattened and became larger with longer claws on each toe. Two middle toes on his left foot where replaced by stumps, obviously from a past fight. His body began to bulk up.

Thoughts of past battles came to his mind, he grinned as he tried to loosen up his muscles.

Quickly gaining more and more muscle tell his skin stretched taunt to contain it all a medium length beard formed under his lower jaw. giving him an air of experience. The Mismagius smiled as the spell dispersed.

SavageLeomon couldn't help but let out a roar. Luckily for him, the other people there took him as just a very good actor.

* * *

Tate and Liza, the twin gym leaders were having a great time at the party just laughing and playing with the food and the Pokemon in the room. Since they loved Pokemon so much and they had such a close bond, they decided to dress up as Pokemon to represent their relationship. Liza dressed up as a Shellder While her brother was dressed up as a slowpoke. Every once in a while LIza would pull on her brother's "tail" for fun and they'd have a big laugh about it while other trainers complimented them on the unique idea they had come up with.

"Liza, do you think we stand a chance of winning the contest?"

"Of course we do Tate, we spent a lot of time on these costumes after all. And I'm sure they'll like our idea for evolving our suits." She said, winking to her brother who couldn't help but chuckle at the ingenuity they had in making a second suit that both could fit into behind a flash and puff of smoke to represent the evolution into the next stage.

"Hmm... Heh heh. This'll be interesting...", Gengar chuckled. "Let's make it a bit more interesting though... Just have to time it right..." The ghost created a King's Rock that matched the size of Tate's costume.

"Hey Tate is that a ...?"

"King's rock! It's perfect!" Tate replied, grabbing it and placing it on his head. "Now we can evolve into a Slowking instead of a Slowbro!"

"But we don't have a slowking costume." Liza argued.

The ghost let out a blast of Confusion at the twins.

"Woah ... wah .. WAHHHHHHH!" The twins cried in unison as something caught up their feet. Tate fell flat on his face and Liza fell on top of him, the clamp on her costume slamming shut over the king's rock with another blast of confusion. She couldn't see anymore.

"Liza! Get off of me!"

"I can't! My costume is stuck!"

Tate was suddenly able to feel the pressure of the Shellder- his SISTER on his skull, as if his skin was now one in the same with the costume, and the feel of the carpet that he was sprawled over.

"Uhhhhh ... Liza ... I'm not feelin' too good. Can you get off me?"

Liza's vision was becoming covered, and she found it hard to answer as her shell formed harder around her. A Red Gem appeared on the front of her costume.

"I would if I could get my costume to open up. It's stuck!" Liza was pushing and pulling, trying to force open the clamp's vice-like grip on the king's rock, but gradually she was struggling less and less as her body began to meld with the costume, the shell beginning to shrink a little bit and grow lighter. Tate in the mean time was still trying to get up off of the floor while that strange feeling continued to take place within him. It was like he didn't even have any costume on anymore. What was going on here? It was getting harder for him to think.

The Tail started to move freely as Tate kept on trying to pull himself off the ground. Soon the fake plastic eyes started to blink on the costume. Meanwhile, Liza was completely sealed in and her mind was going as she started to meld with her twin brother's mind.

"Tate what-"

"-'s happening?" Tate finished his sister's sentence without meaning to. Something wasn't right here. But the more he tried to think, the less he could think. There was something on his head, but he didn't mind. He was just feelin kinda hungry. "Slowwwwwpooooke." He wasn't even aware he'd just spoken like a Pokemon as the transformation continued to run over him like a wave.

The Shellder shrunk down to a normal size and continued to clamp down hard on the King's Rock on the Slowpoke's head. Nothing more was on her mind but clamping down.

Tate's limbs and ears all started to become real as he let out a big yawn.

The new Slowpoke brought a hand up to the Shellder before registering it was there. And suddenly the king's rock started to glow.

The light then covered both Pokémon as well. Their shape changed, and when the light receded, they were an anthro Slowking.

The Slowking blinked a moment before snapping back into reality. "Hmmmm, this is interesting. Were you responsible for bringing me here, Gengar?"

"Yes. I am. I need you to keep the calm in here. The others are starting to go overboard. Most of the party has been changed, and it'd be best if there wasn't chaos from the conflicting types of creatures here. Your psychic powers should come in handy."

The Slowking considered this. "Well, I suppose I could do it as a favor to an old friend, but you owe me Gengar and I intend to collect." The Slowking said good naturedly as he winked before heading back out into the party. He could enjoy some of the food at the table while he was at it. For some reason he was feeling as hungry as he did after he evolved in the first place.

* * *

Noland was walking around in his custom made Articuno costume. Articuno herself had even lent a few feathers for the costume for some reason.

{Hmmmmm ... what have we here?} the Pokemon thought to himself as he gazed on the frontier brain. He could feel the life force of some of those feathers. They were the real deal. How he'd managed to snag them from the actual Articuno was anyone's guess. That chick was normally one of the huffiest and fitful of the three siblings.

Oblivious to the ghost above, Noland continued to socialize with the few remaining guests.

The ghost sensed something special from the feathers; a powerful emotion. Could it possibly be ...? The Sableye's smile widened into a ghoulish grin. He knew just what to do with this human. And it'd help get him in with one of the legendaries too. Bonus! The ghost, knowing how hard this was going to be decided to go with luring using his greatest weakness. A blue light could be seen glowing weakly outside and he could hear a terrible cry of pain coming towards him. A cry he knew only too well and that froze his heart.

Noland ran outside. What was she doing here? It's true, that most of the people were gone, but there were still enough trainers to put her in Jeopardy.

The glow was ebbing and beginning to fade but could still be dimly made out in the heart of the graveyard. The warbling cry was growing fainter now, and Noland's heart was racing.

"...Hnh? What's wrong? Articuno!"

Even as he raced towards the graveyard, some of the feathers started to adhere to his skin but that didn't matter much to him. All he cared about was his friend and if she needed help. The cry echoed again, barely hanging onto consciousness.

"What's wrong? Articuno!", he shouted as he kept running. Nothing else mattered to him at the moment.

As he raced among the tombstones, they seemed to glow in the night pulsing purple and white. His feet cracked and shifted into the shoes, becoming real and clicking along the ground as he raced, pumping his arms as he continued to race, the feathers ruffling in the wind. As it raced over his body, it seemed almost as if he could feel the individual feathers ruffling in the wind. Which as a matter of fact, he could. But the light was almost out now and he still was quite a ways away. He needed to get to her. He knew he had to. Another crack, and he was clacking his new beak and blinking cold ice blue eyes. His body was changing proportion now. His legs growing more thin and knobby while the rest of his mass shifted to the upper proportions, allowing his body to swell and grow into the form of a much larger bird-like creature.

His lovely mate... She was calling for him. What was he THINKING coming all the way out here?

"Noland ... Noland please?" The cry was weak and longing. She was in pain.

"ARTICUNO!" he shouted in his new voice.

What few changes were left quickly took place as any signs of the old Noland disappeared. He was a proud looking Articuno now. He remembered being human, but right now all he cared about was reaching his mate.

"She's not here you know."

"I know...", he said, "But she needs me. I can feel it. She's always needed me," he corrected, "..but it was a need that I could never fulfill before. But now I can. And I will."

"She'll be very glad of it when you get there. You may want to visit every once in a while just to let your other human friends know that you're alright. For now though, I think you'd best get back to your mate. I sense a honeymoon on the way." The Sableye said, grinning in a devilish way at the new legendary, though it was also a tired smile.

"If she lets me leave," Noland said with as wry a grin as he could pull off with his new beak, and he took off.

The Sableye staggered momentarily as he remembered a woman ... very beautiful. It was a brief flash but it took him off balance. She left him with a terrible pang of longing. "Hmm? oh ... oh yeah. I'm sure she will. Let me know when the kids are here alright?" Another pang hit the ghost on mention of children. Why? Why was he feeling these sensations when they had been dead for so long? The ghost faded away to ponder in solitude for a time.

* * *

Cillan, as usual, was running his usual Pokémon Connoisseur program. However, as the people lessened, he had less to do. What he was wearing resembled his Premium Blend, Pansage.

Mismagius almost laughed at Cilian's costume as she followed him idly. The costume made him look hilarious

Cilian really had no need for a mansion. He was considering leaving the party early.

His fire haired brother was currently drunk and talking to a statue he thought was a beautiful lady. While his aqua haired brother was discussing high life with the elites.

Cilian sighed. Well, if Cress and Chili were staying, so would he.

Mismagius caused all three of their pokeballs to release there stored Pokémon. Pansage Panseer and Panpour

For some reason the three apes grabbed their partners and pulled them into three separate rooms.

"Pansage, what are you doing?"

Pansage didn't answer just pulled his master into the room and shut the door.

"Pansage? What's wrong with you!" he demanded as he was in the other room.

"He has accepted my offer" Mismagius said as he descended. "They all have"

"Offer! W-What kind of Offer?"

"I ask you this; have you ever asked Pansage if he was lonely by chance?"

"Well actually…", he started, before he was cut off.

"Ever asked him if he needed someone closer than a friend?"

"I-", he started to answer before he was again cut off.

"So I have offered him just I have offered his brothers" Mismagius smiled. "You well become his companion" Mismagius eye's flashed.

"Wh-WHAT!"

Cilans hair twisted until it formed a miniature tree. "Such is the price you'll pay"

"Th-This isn't..."

"Fair?" Mismagius asked as Cilan began to shrink "Was it fair to Pansage"

Cilan clenched his fists.

Green fur covered most of his body well orange covered his face and chest. A tail grew out as two leaf points grew out of the end. A small muzzle grows out of his face as his eye's grow huge and his ears grow massive.

Cilian falls to his knees and starts sobbing.

Out of sight another change happened as Cilan became female. His hands changed into paws. His feet changes into small Pansage hind paws. Finally her memories modified to fit her new place. Pansage rubbed the females back. "What's wrong dear?"

Cilla wasn't sure why, but she was still sobbing. She got up and hugged her love, the tears still flowing for something that she couldn't fully remember. All she knows is she lost something important to her.

Pansage on the other hand smiled as a place in his heart filled Mismagius left them alone heading to one of the other rooms.

* * *

Clair the dragon trainer stood in the party dressed in a very strange looking costume. It looked almost like a Charmeleon, but there were some key differences such as the make-up of the maw, and some markings on the body. There was also no tail flame, but overall it was very impressive and somewhat intimidating, perfect for the dragon trainer even though she was rather soft on the inside.

"Hmm... That outfit... Ah. That's where it's from," The ghost said. The Gengar still didn't feel right about doing this, but he decided to go ahead with it anyway. Suddenly, the sound of a crying baby Dragon Pokémon could be heard by Clair and only Clair. A Dratini to be precise.

Clair immediately cocked her head. What would a little pokemon like a Dratini be doing so far away from a body of water? Knowing how rare the species was from experience and of their unique qualities she would do anything to save this little one. She was rushing through the crowd as fast as she could to find the poor thing.

The noise seemed to be coming from the kitchen. Perhaps the poor thing had gotten caught in a pantry or something

Claire swiftly made her way to the kitchen, holding the pokeball with her Dragonair ready in case the poor thing needed a friend to comfort it. She swung open the doors in a dramatic manner and surprised the twin pokemorphs who were hard at work making more delicacies for the guests in the house. "Oh ... excuse me ... I thought I heard a Dratini in here ..." The gym leader said a little sheepishly.

"You mean the garbage disposal?" the Plusle asked.

"Ummmm ... no, I don't think so." The gym leader said looking slightly offended.

A Few of the guests outside were apparently getting rowdy, so the two chefs hurried to get them more food, giving Clair more time to explore.

Clair kept moving from place to place, trying to determine where the sound of the whimpering was coming from. She had opened practically all of the drawers and cupboards until at last she reached the location of the pantry. Hastily she flung open the doors.

A Small Dratini was inside, crying to itself. Or so it had seemed.

Clair quickly moved toward the little thing and embraces it, cooing and petting down its small back, giving it assurances that everything was okay. Its big wide eyes were so innocent. It reminded her of her Dragonair back when it was a Dratini. And she couldn't help but smile at the memory.

Suddenly, both froze. "...I'm sorry to have to do this, my dear," Gengar said as the Dratini in her arms faded away. Suddenly, her hands became quite a bit less articulate as three large claws came out of the costume.

"Why ... can't ... I ... move?"

"I know you're highly athletic and capable of getting away from me if I let you keep moving," the ghost answered honestly.

"Who's there?" She demanded angrily. She so wished she'd released Dragonair; this person would regret what they had done to her. She wasn't even aware of how her claws had changed from prosthetics to real.

Suddenly the eyes of her costume became real, beginning to blink.

"Huh?" Clair asked in confusion, not understanding why she could suddenly see so much better through the eyes of her costume.

The costume's belly grew a bit and became HER belly, and started to growl, as the mask of the costume also became her face - she started to get free at this point, but her mind was starting to change.

"Why did you ... what am I doing here?" The lady brought her new clawed hands to her head, confused at the conflicting thoughts going through her mind.

Her tail became real and started to twitch behind her... She could see the stacks of bread in the pantry around her.

Her stomach growled again and she licked her lips as she inhaled the scent of the bread. "Mmmmmmm ... breeaaad." She smiled as she reached for one almost without thinking. For a reason she couldn't quite grasp, her hand stopped short, hesitant.

Flaps appeared at the top of her head, resembling fins but working as ears. The former costume now got a Black Biohazard Marking, and her face got a similar, but not identical one.

She grabbed it hungrily and bit into it savagely, chomping happily as she enjoyed the flavor of it. The next one glowed briefly before she bit into it, and it was filled with peanut butter; her favorite treat! Her eyes widened and then she really started to eat with the gusto of a true Digimon.

"Hey! Girl you know that's only for a treat!" Yang scolded.

"Awwww ... I sorry, it's just so good." She said cutely as her eyes grew big in the way that melted anyone who looked into them.

"Come on you empty legs" he smiled walking over and grabbing her, "Let's get you cleaned up"

* * *

Fantina stood nearby the food table on the stage looking at all of the party goers. She was so glad that she'd suggested this little party. She couldn't wait to judge all the wonderful costumes people had brought in. Though she had to admit that she was very impressed with the "servants" that had arrived. Such wonderful acting and attention to detail. She of all people could understand that. She herself had decided to wear ancient Pokégyptian garb to represent the ancient goddess of beauty and grace, Bast, in human form. She did not wish to cover her beautiful face with a mask.

Mismagius stood a bit awed. Fantina was almost as much a legend as Agatha amongst ghost kind, "Good evening lady fantina"

"Oh, why hello dear, vhat an excellent costume you have made." The gym leader said, thinking that the Ghost of the Mansion was getting into the spirit of the party. She was so used to ghosts that she often considered them the same as people, which in fact they were.

"My lady may we talk someplace more private?" She asked

"But of course dear. I em alvays so happy to help a spirit." Her accent was as thick as ever, but that seemed to only add to her charm.

Mismagius led her up the stairs to the second floor and inside the master bedroom. "My lady I apologize but me and my companions have sword a spirits oath to punish the humans for breaking my tombstone tonight"

The lady brought her hands to her cheeks with a shocked expression. "Mon Dieu! But of course you must you poor Sing!" The famed gym leader was moving to embrace the ghost Pokémon before even considering the fact this was a ghost.

"I have brought you here my lady because I wish to not harm you but add to your beauty"

Fantina stopped at this. "To .. add to eet? How is zis possible?" The gym leader asked, both out of curiosity, and shock that the Pokémon would wish to give her such a gift.

"Only tonight my lady, surly you know tonight our powers are greater than even the legendaries"

"I vas not aware of zis. My own friends have nevar shown such changes on zis night."

"It is only in their place of life and death that these powers are gained" she explained. "Will you trust me my lady?"

"How can I not? Eef you indeed meant me harm you vould have done so by now, vould you not?"

Mismagius smiled gratefully even as a slender black tail grew out behind Fantina and waved around sensualy.

Fantina looked back on her new sleek tail and couldn't help but admire it as it whipped back and forth.

A prickle swept across her form as shiny black fur covered her. Her fur shimmered in the light her hands changed only minor as her nails became retractable curved claws. Her body reshaped becoming even finer formed with divine beauty. Her gold jewelry became finer. Gems sparkling flawlessly in the light. Night black diamonds, pink pearls, golden topaz's.

Fantina gasped at the changes to her gown. It was so regal ... so ... ethereal. She was struck speachless by what the ghost had done, but in a good way.

her sandals changed with her feet as they became digigrade cat paws. Her gown changed to fine glittering silk. her eye's became silted and blue as her face pulled out into a muzzle. Two triangular cat ears on either side of her head.

"Oh my dear, dear Mismagius. You have done me a great service. I but wish I could repay you." Fantina said fondly as she embraced the pokemon, now capable of doing so with the changes that had been made to her.

"You where always a goddess my lady, it was just hidden, but i am not finished yet."

"But what ees left?"

Fantina's hair receded into her head. "I am sorry but your hair, lovely though it is, would not fit a goddess." a gold collar grew around her neck. The sacred ankh forming on it and glowing brightly even without light. A golden bejeweled dagger appeared at her side. "Now you are finished my lady" the Mismagius said as Bastes life was added to Fantinas own.

Fantina just looked on the ghost a moment before once again hugging her. There were no words to describe how she felt at what had been done. She was just so grateful and happy. The stars above shone brightly at the rebirth of the goddess.

"You are most kind my lady" Mismagius said as her tendrils wrapped around baste as well.

"But you have ze bigger heart."

* * *

Ash and Misty were busy trying not to notice one another. Of course, as the partygoers started vanishing, it was getting harder and harder. "Misty? Is it just me, or has everyone left?" Ash wondered.

"It looks like it, I haven't even seen Brock in hours" Misty looked around worried.

At the very mention of Brock, a pair of cute Vulpix came running up to the trainers as they were playing. One of them slid to a stop and looked up at the pair in an inquisitive manner.

"Hello there" Misty said softly

"Vul." The pokemon said cutely.

"...huh. Those Vulpix sure seem familiar...", Ash said.

{...Do I really have to do this?} the Gengar wondered as he looked at the scene below him... He then realized that if he didn't then Sableye surely would. And he wouldn't care who they are.

The Gengar began to glow blue as an aura of power surrounded him. Then the blue glow also surrounded Ash and Misty dimly as the more subtle changes began. Their nails gradually merged with the costumes, turning black and long. They started to shrink a little and a slight tingling sensation was occurring all over their bodies.

Ash scratches at his costume, it was really beginning to itch.

"Is it getting warm in here?" Misty asked

{...I hope they don't get too mad about this...}, Gengar said.

As it continued, there was a slight tugging and pushing sensation they felt above their rears as the tails began to fuse with their bodies, melding with their spinal column and becoming one. Next came the ears as they shifted from the sides of their heads inside the costumes to the top and merged with the ears of the costumes. Sounds were becoming much more acute as they continued to talk to one another in their usual cautious, shy, and even rude facade.

"This room carries sound amazingly well" Misty said

"Yeah.. It's almost like we're not wearing costumes," Ash said.

"So what do we do if we win Ash?" Misty asked. "I mean what happens if we both win?"

Next came the pulling sensation in their faces as they merged into the costume, allowing them to not only hear but see and smell much stronger than their human senses had. And they suddenly experienced a massive sense of vertigo as they began to shrink down in size, their clothing first feeling extremely loose and then falling off of their bodies as they became only about a half foot to a foot tall.

"Well I- hey, what's happening?", Ash asked.

Misty screamed and attempted to cover herself.

"Huh?" Ash was confused why misty was covering herself for a little.

{Kid's oblivious, I'll give him that much...}

"STOP STARING AT ME!" misty said smacking ash with her mallet which was shrunk to fit her new size.

"Oww...", Ash said and rubbed his head, "I- I guess we do need some nice pants and other clothes, huh?"

{I could grant him that at the least...}

A puff of smoke later and the two new ottsels stood in a new pair of pants. Mercifully, Misty's shirt had been shrunk down and placed on her uper parts to make her more presentable. Ash was barechested ... well as barechested as a furry ottsel can be and both pairs of pants had tail holes for their new long muscular tails.

Ash felt around his head around his spikey headfur, "...I feel naked without my hat." Gengar rolled his eyes.

A puff later and Ash's head was once again bedecked with his favorite hat, ottsel sized.

* * *

The Zorro costumed gentlemen had the Graveyard lit up in as many different lanterns as he could have found and from a distance had looked like a army of will-o-wisps. He was working on placing a final wooden support beam. Yes he had to dismantle an old fence, but it was one that separated the backyard from a overgrown pasture field which he knew was part of the land. He did research and put together the land information of this property and now... he was stepping back, holding up an old kerosene lantern to look at his handiwork, the Entire Night he had worked in the graveyard, repairing, gluing and frankly repairing a damaged warzone. Funny thing was this final project, in fixing up other stones he had found falling and buried in the ground and half buried a forgotten headstone, he had plaster in the mud making a second copy of the intact stone. the reason behind the wooden beams was to try and set the headstone back into its costmary place. He looked at another broken headstone cradled in a wooden cross hatch of wooden beams. He sighed and looked at his wrist watch almost midnight he thought, no, no, it was two am? or was it one? Suddenly he couldn't really tell from the shadows. he shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. He felt suddenly very tired as if something was or had drawn energy from him or walked over his own grave as one saying went. He shook his head and went back to making sure his handiwork would hold till everything finished setting.

{...See? Not all humans are bad,} The Gengar said.

{Alright, alright, I'm willing to agree ... grudgingly.} The Sableye replied sullenly.

The costumed man looks up in confusion and tired eyes. he didn't hear voices did he? He shook his head and then moved to where an Indian ink can was and started to ink in the letters on the stone.

The Mismagius was on the ground, her head throbbing with pain as her memories tried to return.

"Let's see what you say."

{Magy ... are you alright?} The Sableye descended down to her level, concerned for the ghost.

' ANGORIA LANDERVILLE'

'1358 - 1380'

'BELOVED WIFE, FRIEND, LOVER, AND MOTHER'

'MAY GIRATINA TAKE THE ONE WHO PUT OUT SUCH A SHINING CANDLE'

Zorro blinked and chocked a little. "So much in so little words." He moved to the one he had unburied and blinked out tears and began to ink the letters in that one, the others having already been inked in, this was the last stone to be inked. "To wonder how their stories were? What things they saw?" he asked himself aloud.

The Sableye was furious thinking this boy was somehow causing Mismagius pain. He wanted to make this human pay. He may have been fixing the graveyard, but clearly he was doing something wrong. An aura of red surrounded the human as he worked on inking in the stone and purple and red fur began to grow in suddenly on his body.

{Sableye! STOP!}

The human froze at the command. "Uh... did I do something wrong?" his fur covered hand shaking in fear.

The Sableye was beyond reason as he was focused solely on avenging her pain. Sableye used all his will and the human's face began to pull out into a muzzle as his body was covered in all kinds of musculature as he became more lean and lithe. More fitting for his costume as his eyes changed to a beautiful bright light blue. His ears pointed and his hair tufted upwards as it became accented with a tuft of red while his hands and feet were covered in red fur. Two red spots of fur appeared between his eyes and his eyelids became reddish as well. And last but not least, a small mane and a cute tail burst outwards within his cotume, completing his anthro look.

In shock and shaking he did one more stroke and the first name on the headstone was completed in being inked in.

A blast of magic knocked the Sableye over. "STOP!"

Zorro turned his head. "Is inking in stones against the law?" he asked in fear and irritation in having the word Stop yelled twice.

Gengar phased in and helped the Zorua stand, "Are you okay?", Gengar asked.

The Sableye was reeling from the blast of magical power. He was also having difficulties with a nagging feeling going on in his head after the human had finished inking in the first name on the headstone to make it visible to human eyes again.

"I, I, I think so." The antrho responded not seeing the changes due to the shadows as some of the lanterns had died at the anger of the Sableye. "Am I in trouble? I was only restoring the graveyard here."

"He's... got a temper problem. A Big one."

Lily walked in. "what's happening?"

"I was working on restoring this graveyard and using my skills where I could and I got yelled at."

Sableye snarled. "HE was hurting her!"

He then realized something. "Ghosts!" he yelped

The Sableye pointed in the direction of the Mismagius.

"No" Mismagius spoke up. "he was helping me"

"Helping ma'am?" he asked. "How?"

"I remember, I remember it all"

The Sableye on seeing that the Mismagius was alright rushed up to her and embraced her. He didn't know where this rush of emotion and sensitivity was coming from, but he was glad she was alright.

"Edward that temper well get you into trouble one day" the Mismagius said

The Sableye floated back a bit. "Edward? Who's that?"

"Please human finish filling in the letters" the Mismagius said

"Thank you miss Lily," The Gengar said as he turned around to face the Pokémon Witch, "I'm glad you ran into that massager I sent. I admit it was a bit unorthodox, but... It was the only thing that I could do and get around him with."

"Uh... names... names..." he blinked but shook his head and laughed."I don't believe it I forgot my name I forgot everything else for a moment why not my name?" he shook his head chuckling which sounded off to him because of his muzzle and began to ink in the other letters and numbers.

"Oops. Uhhhh ... miss Witch ... if you don't mind ..." The Sableye said, motioning towards the anthro to indicate his need to be fixed.

Lily began chanting as she worked to heal zorro even as he finished his work

"Robert, Robert Christopher Jacques." he replied with a grin. "Nice to meet you all." he held out a hand and blinked in shock, "Now that was not like that before." he stared at his paw and pulled his costume back a little and quickly began to touch his face and new muzzle and looked like he was going to freak.

The Gengar sighs and pats the new Zorua on the back, "Well... Let's just say that you won't be alone in this when you go home."

"home? I just..." he trailed off as if thinking of that big idea and problem.

As the tomb stone was written in, Sableye cringed as he was hit by a wave of information bit by bit forcing itself into his brain. It felt so strange. Edward King Landerville ... that was his name. He could see it again. His dearest Angoria. He remembered their wedding night. This had been their home once ... so long ago. He remembered his time with his love, how she had told him about their dear baby waiting to be born ... and then the bitter memories hit. He had lost her ... so young ... she did not deserve to die. He sought aid from his closest and best friend in finding the culprit ... only to be betrayed. He remembered his death now ... the blood flowing from a gaping wound as that sneering backstabbing double crosser looked down on him. Spat on him. Cursed him. And with his last breath, he saw the man for what he was and he cursed him. He would make him pay if it was the last thing he ever did.

"My Edward" the Mismagius tendrils wrapped around the Sableye

He watched and waited for his chance. He watched his own funeral; he saw his grave stone desecrated. Then when his so called friend had purchased his home filled with such happy memories, the stone was destroyed. His memories faded. But his hatred remained. Ohhhhh he paid ... yes, Sableye made sure of it with the great acts of poltergeist and torture. He and his wife had their home again all to themselves. They had a new friend here. Gengar. He was a true friend. And he looked lovingly into the eyes of the woman of his dreams. "Angie. My dearest Angie!" The ghost returned the embrace and added one more to it; a kiss.

Robert blinked but smiled and blinked at the touching reunion. He looked back and realized why they headstones were next to each other. He moved on a little more and then smiled as he touched a paw on another headstone pair. "Hello Grandpa and Grandma how many times distant." not seeing the war going on behind the Sableye's gems.

"Wait ... did he just say ... what I think he said dear?"

"I believe he did" angoria said. "It has been too long we have been here on this world, you're for your vengeance, me for you"

He blinked and turned around. "Can... well, I guess that explains the Zorua?" He asked indicating his own form? "I doubt you wanted me to be this?" he asked him before looking around. "Can, can I take a quick photo of you two? Or a hug?" He was tearing up and feeling this a very tender moment in meeting his ancestors.

The Sableye couldn't help but laugh. His daughter had lived after all. She had escaped and been able to continue the line. And here was the result. The Sableye felt so full ... complete. And here was the end result. "Of course." The Sableye embraced his love once more and as they did, a miracle occured. A glowing white nimbus surrounded the two and suddenly the crystalline eyes melted into soft human ones as the two ghosts suddenly became two human beings glowing brightly and happily. They were see-through, but they were at last whole and ready to take the photo.

Robert blinked in shock but quickly got a photo of them in their ghost Pokémon Form.

"I am sorry for tonight, there is no forgiving our actions and I take full blame for everything" The woman said. "Thank you good Gengar for you have always been a friend worth having."

"You're very welcome."

"Gengar, thank you for being my voice of reason for all these years." Edward embraced the ghost.

"If today we go into the kind embrace of lady mew, it shall not be deserved, if we go into giratinas shadow, then at least we go together, goodbye one and all, we hope this mansion serves the next one to use it well"

"I'll make sure of that," Gengar assured his friends.

The lady strolled over to the Zorua and gently kissed his forehead. "Farwell child"

"Uh ... honey ... we haven't gotten that ... what did you call it, a picture?"

"Bye gramma." he whispered. "You don't mind me routing around your library? Yes yes, a instant painting or engraving."

"The books are yours, but I'm afraid the mansion cannot be given to you"

"Oh I'm sure those two won't mind letting him live here."

"Actually I saw that the carriage house is in disrepair, I think I'll earn my keep by restoring the old I do have to replace the fence I dismantled to repair the graveyard... and I think the south stone wall is falling in the middle..." he trails off. "Sorry, historian... and haven't had much else to do after mom and dad... just say hi to them when you cross over." he hands the camera to the Gengar.

"I'm sure they were very proud of you" Angoria said. "As we are"

"Agreed. The servants will be most loyal to you as well."

He blushed. "I hope so, but, I am afraid I have... heh, I think I will hire on as a grounds keeper and historian." he blinked and motioned if he could get a hug.

"Shall we pose, my dear?"

"Of course"

The two put their arms around their descendant lovingly and smiled to the camera the first true smiles of peace and happiness they had shared in centuries.

Gengar grabbed the camera and took a snapshot.

Robert smiled and smiled holding back tears. "I am honored to have witness this."

"And we were honored to have been able to see our family's legacy carried on so well." The ghost turned to the young witch. "Thank you, my dear. I'm afraid that there will be damage that needs to be repaired. If there is anything you can do for some of the others, please, do so."

"And now I hear an angelic voice telling us it's time to go"

"Yes, the light is waiting for us. And I believe I hear our child. It truly is time. Finally." The light coming from Edward's eyes showed his happiness and his love as he looked into the eyes of his soul mate. "Goodbye, everyone ... and thank you."

"Farewell"

With that, the two ghosts faded away into a bright light shining with heavenly music coming from it. At last the light faded and the music died, but the memory lived on. Not a single eye was dry when they were gone.

* * *

Steven Stone searched the room as he entered the mansion. "Hello? Is anyone here?"

"Uh... We're still here," Ash said, a bit nervous thanks to his smaller size.

Misty moved out into the open her paws on her waist. "What was the idea sending us into a Huanted Mansion?"

Steven looked around then down. "Haunted mansion?"

"Do you think I wanted to be short and covered in Fur?"

Steven released his Gaurdivior. "What's going on?" he asked it pleadingly.

Gaurdiviors eye's glowed as she scanned ash and misty's minds and forwarded the knowledge to Steven.

"Oh my" steven said shocked, "We had this place checked! there wasn't supposed to be any ghosts here."

"...We tend to only come out on Halloween," Gengar said as he appeared.

"YOU!" Misty growled.

"Wha?", Ash started.

"Yes... I am behind what happened to you... So that my friend couldn't get to you first and make it permanent. It should wear off in time. But, considering it was still Halloween when I cast the spell... You'll probably be stuck this way for a year or so... I'm sorry...", Gengar stated.

"A YEAR!", Misty squeaked with anger.

"What did you do to Pikachu and the others!"

The ghost winced, "...You'll… find out on your own time," he said, ashamed of himself. He had gotten to into it, but he wasn't sure how to rectify the problem.

"Ahem, be that as it may, Ash and Misty you two are the last contestants in the house, more specifically inside the room where a grisly murder took place well over five hundred years ago, you win"

"Murder?" Misty growled in anger. "What kind of contest was this?"

"I'd say it was a typical Halloween contest," The ghost piped in cheerfully.

"Nobody asked you," Ash said irritably.

"The last lord of the house had a very specific will, which comes to a rather problematic point."

Misty looked nervous at this.

"What point is that?", Ash asked.

The ghost looked confused too. He wasn't aware of this.

"The lord of the house wrote himself that should a couple, that is a man and woman of non-marital status, win the house, they muct come to a more permanent living agreement before they could acept ownership of the house."

"Wait, Marry him?" Misty asked pointing at Ash.

"-Is that what that means?", Ash asked.

"Legally yes, otherwise you can't accept the house..."

"Wh-What? Bu-But we're not old enough to...", Ash stammered.

"..Or the massive fortune that comes with it."

"Fortune?", Misty wondered.

"F-Fortune?", Ash asked.

"Oh yes, the family was ridicoulously wealthy, aside from stocks, bonds, and off shore bank accounts the house itself contains a mass horde of gold and jewels"

The Ghost nodded smugly.

"The last estimate put there current liquid assets alone at over 100 trillion pokedollars."

"Off shore? But how? How old is this family?"

"From what we can tell the family had the mansion built when they moved to Kanto almost a full millennia ago."

The ghost nodded again, "It's actually a bit older than that, but that's just when they moved to Kanto," the ghost nodded.

"Wh-Whoa... I- That-", Ash stammered.

"Should i call headquarters and tell them we should try again next year?"

Misty just stammered in Ghost looked annoyed. NEXT Year? They couldn't wait that long.

"No, no! I- I think Misty and I can think up an agreement, right Misty?", Ash said.

Misty nodded her head mutely.

"Very well if you would just sign these papers" Steven handed them each a stack, "and Misty it would be alot easier and headquarters if you'd just sign them Mrs. Ketchum"

Misty gulped a little. "Okay, I will do that." She however mentally liekd the sound of Misty Ketchem.

"Now the mansion has a full live in staff who you well meet them later, there payments, expenses and other such things are taken care of remotely so don't be afraid to ask for anything you need"

"A-Alright then...", Ash said.

The Ghost grinned and decided to leave the two devices in a place where Ash'd run into them for later.

"Congratulations you two, enjoy the mansion"

Misty nodded her head a little, still nervous and trying to grasp the idea of having a mansion.

Steven turned and left promptly his Gaurdivior floating behind him.

* * *

Ash and Misty eventually married, with a wedding set up by none other than Ash's mother, Delia. Like Gengar had promised, a year or two into their marriage, they had returned to normal. In time, Ash would eventually manage to become a Pokemon Master.

Harley was never seen again, but there were tales of a depressed female Cacturne and her large and happy family.

Gengar gave Paul a choice of staying on a world that he didn't know, but possibly managing to live, or 'returning' to the land of Hyrule, where Link would inevitably slay him in time. Paul chose wisely.

Mickey and Sammy went on a journey together to become Pokemon masters. They crossed paths with Ash quite a few times. Also, Jimmy was reunited with his brother Growlie, who Mickey caught to keep the two together. The Zebstrika who was formerly KC and Akira was captured by Sammy and became fast friends with his new trainer.

Max, Norman, and Gears stayed on the planet for a while to take down criminals such as Team Galactic and various Pokemon Hunters, before heading into space and returning to their home solar system, where they teamed up with a Lombax and his robot partner by the names of Ratchet and Clank.

Nathan eventually burned off the excess weight and had gotten revenge on the costume rental company. People have seen signs of a wild Cubone the size of a human, but nobody had ever captured it to prove it's existence. Eventually, tired of people trying to catch him, he decided to work at the Mansion for Ash and Misty.

Despite their physical transformations, Agatha and Fantina kept their standings, and were admired by many.

Timothy served Ash and Misty's family as a battle butler for the rest of his days. While still clumsy, Terra did her best to make life comfortable for the married couple. Likewise, Light became a bodyguard for them (mostly for Misty thanks to Ash's partners) and their children, and Sparky and Yin one day did marry. Yang became world renown for his dishes, and his pet Clair became world renown for being the world's only Guilmon - and her appetite.

Lucy's son Brock eventually grew up and mated happily with Suzie's daughter. They had many kits.

Splinter and his sons remained as permanent guests in the Ketchum manor. Leonardo felt an odd connection to Ash, and Ash had figured out his identity when he had saw the sunglasses.

Likewise, with the help of Gengar, Ash had gotten Usagi Miyamoto alone and explained their past together. Usagi didn't want to give up his life as Usagi, and yet at the same time, he felt that his life as Pikachu was important too. Thankfully, using a wish from his Jeanie, he was able to split himself into two and return to his life as Pikachu, while remaining the Rabbit Wanderer. On occasion, Usagi would return to the mansion to visit with Leonardo, and at the same time, catch up with his other half.

Nanaki found his mate Denah, amongst the party goers. With help from Steven, he and Denah were airlifted to a canyon in the land of Oore which was later remodeled to become the new Cosmo Canyon, where They and their kind, as well as anyone wanting to return to the times before Pokemon training became the norm could live in peace.

Beast Boy rejoined the Teen Titans, who were actually compromised of people who had been changed in prior years into the Teen Titans - it's a bit confusing.

Ace and Shiron both became partners to Ash, so they'd protect him from any attempts on his life - after all, the Chosen One had many enemies.

The Doduo who was formerly Butch and Cassidy was seen in the forest, but never got captured in his lifespan.

Spyro, Cynder and their children were occasionally seen flying freely over the various Pokemon lands. Much like the Legendaries, they became merely the stuff of legends as some people were skeptical of their existence.

As Sableye promised, Frank Talbain was reunited with his brother Jon. While Sableye couldn't direct him to him himself, having passed on, Gengar gladly did this for him. The two brothers had much catching up to do - especially as Jon had a family, including a little boy, that Frank had never seen before.

Dawn the Succubus had made good on Mismagius's suggestion. She and her group of Succubi and Mancubi would come around every Halloween, ready to convert more Pokemon Coordinators to their cause.

Princess Sveta eventually founded a kingdom of sorts for Psychics and would help them to overcome their problems, so none of them would have to endure what she herself endured.

SavageLeomon stayed to guard his lady, Misty. He grew to consider her his niece, not knowing that that was what she was to begin with.

Tate would grow to be a link between Human and Pokemon, gladly helping people understand their Pokemon more. Whether that meant changing them or just interpreting for them depended on the person.

Noland returned to the Orange Archipelago, where he and Articuno soon were mated. Articuno became less of a problem after this, and Gengar took it upon himself to find women who would do the same for Moltres and Zapdos. After all, Lugia deserved a long vacation, didn't he?

Cilla and her Sisters became as famous as they were as humans for their cooking. They and their husbands opened up a resturaunt in place of the former one, and were enjoyed by all, not just women.

Many other people had also participated in the costume party, and all of them had changed as well. They had all gained new lives as Pokemon, Morphs, or what have you. And every Halloween, more partygoers would find their lives changed forever.


	29. Chinese Poké New Year

Chinese New Year Chronicle

Disclaimer: -I'm tired of this. You should know by now. -_-;

* * *

Timerock island sat quiet as always… A small island not half an hour from the border of the Unova League's borders. At one point it had been the home of a thriving civilization, highly advanced even more so then the Pokemonopolians.

Now it was only a deserted island sitting by itself in the ocean. Not even Pokemon lived on the island. Ruins covered the terrain as far as the island went. In the center stood an enormous stone circle. This circle baffled scientists to no end.

The giant stone circle was almost thirty meters wide and a perfect circle. In the center ingrained into the rock where arms similar to that of a clock. Thirteen smaller circles surrounded the larger one, twelve covering the face like numbers on a clock, while the thirteenth stood directly behind the rat.

Each circle had a large bronze face fitted to the stone and an arrow like indent on one points. In the center emblazoned was a zodiac Pokemon. In the thirteenth circle a cat was emblazoned.

At one time scientists had studied the 'Zodiac Calendar' as they called it but after many years it had been left alone do to border disputes and frankly general boredom when nothing really was happening.

Twelve of the faces had their point facing directly up and as the last minute counted down to the date change. The dragon face which was the only one not facing up began to move of it's own will. Several thousand years of ticking at a incredibly slow pace was ending as the arrow made it's way upward. Finally just as midnight hit the dragon plate stood facing upward directly.

Suddenly a light sparked form the inscribed hands. This light filled the imprint in an almost liquid fashion as similar lights covered the outline of the surrounding circles.

Thirteen lights shot upward into the nights sky and spread out. Returning a instant later to become barriers to the thirteen sleeping figures within them.

The light in the center next bubbled upwards as it formed a humanoid shape. The creature examined the thirteen beings finding them to be acceptable. He turned to the first one. Ready to begging the task he had so longingly awaited.

One by one, each of the figures woke up..

"Huh? What- What happened?", Ash, laying on the symbol of the dragon said. He quickly realized something was up.

"A-Ash? What are you doing here?", Misty wondered, as she woke up on the Tiger symbol.

Max, on the dog one looked around worriedly. He went to sleep in his bed at Petalburg, right? What was he doing outside in these ruins?

The others woke up one by one, May on the Rooster, Ritchie on the Horse, Pikachu on the Rat, Brock on the Ox, Tracey on the Pig, Dawn on the Rabbit, Iris on the Snake, Cilian on the Monkey, and... Ash had never met the young men on the Sheep and the Cat.

Peter groaned and stayed asleep not bothering to get up as he lay on the sheep symbol.

"Hey, wake up!", Ash said.

"Uhhh…" Peter groaned opening his eye's slightly he blinked lazily, "Who the heck are you?"

"I- I'm Ash Ketchum. Do you know where we are?", Ash asked.

Peter looked around confused for a moment. "Timestone island would be my first guess."

"Timestone Island?", Ash wondered.

Iris sat up, "You don't even know that? Ash, you are SUCH a kid!"

Ash glared. He wasn't in the mood for Iris's lectures this early.

Peter looked around. "Timothy? You're here too?"

"Y-Yeah... How'd we get here? This place has been abandoned for years," Timothy said, as he rubbed his eyes.

"I figured there was something to this thing," Peter looked at the energy figure "Wow."

The figure seemed to stare at Ash as it glided over.

Ash blinked, "Wha? What are-?"

"Ash Ketchum, chosen one of Lugia?"

"Yes, that's me, why do you ask?"

The voice was hard to place it seemed deep and high pitched loud and yet incredibly soft, "you have been chosen to bear the dragon, you we'll lead the zodiac immortals" the voice stated.

"W-Wait, Zodiac immortals? What is this about? Who are you?"

"Several thousand years ago the immortal animals of the Zodiac gave themselves to stop a horrible catastrophe. We, the people of Zor, built the calendar to gather energy so that they could be reborn in thirteen new mortals, sadly our task forced us to give up corporeal forms" the voice explained.

"Now the energy is collected and the thirteen are here, you must be the center to rebirth the dragon."

"Is this part of me being the chosen one, or was I picked at Random?", Ash wondered.

"You where the most fitting of those born in the year of the dragon," the being said, not really answering Ash's question.

"I- I see...", Ash said.

"Be prepared Ash Ketchum" the figure said

Ash sighed, "I'm as prepared as I can be..."

Lifting it's hand more liquid light began to flood ash's circle, held back by the barrier around him.

Ash looked around at the light.

As the light hit his socks Ash instantly felt metal beneath his feet as the fabric vanished. As the light filled the barrier, Ash's clothing was wiped away as the light touched him. As soon it had reached the top of the barrier and ash was naked suspended in fluid light.

Ash's skin began to grow hard as it darkened into a blackish grey color. His chest began to build more muscle very fast.

Ash started to breathe really fast, "Is- Is this supposed to hurt like this?"

There was no answer as two large spire-like horns grew out the back of his head. his skin cracked as it sectioned into large armor like plates, the spaces between glowing yellow.

Ash started to scream out, losing his composure.

His face pulled out into a large snout as his teeth lengthened into long sharp dragon teeth.

Ash's screams started to change into a more feral-sounding roar.

An incredibly long tail grew out behind him. It was split into four sections separated buy round plates with four redlined fins poking out of each. ending with a mace like tip.

His feet burned as his feet realigned one toe moving backwards on each foot well one disappeared altogether. the other three each gaining a long claw. Ash found himself standing digigrade so the tip of his back claw hovered just above the ground.

His hands burned as well as his four fingers merged into two for each hand. graining similar long sharp claws for each.

His arms and legs bulked up considerably making him more muscular. other things grew as well as more then a few of the girls blushingly noted. Ash stared at his hands, his now yellow eyes surrounded by black widening in recognition.

Ash felt his body filled with amazing power. he felt invincible every movement felt like it could crush stone.

"It is finished," the voice said, "Die as a man and be reborn, dragon immortal."

Ash floated back down to the ground, by his own power, before letting out a powerful roar. The barrier lowered allowing him freedom.

Ash's eyes, now looking small and narrow, panned by each of his friends, stopping momentarily on Misty and also for a moment on Pikachu.

Dawn suddenly was the next one lifted up in the Light. Like Ash, her clothes started to disintegrate.

Dawn squeaked and blushed. "What's going on?" she asked the figure.

"Prepare, rabbit immortal" the Light said "Your desires shall be granted."

Dawn could only star confused blushing deeper as more of her body was revealed.

Most of the guys looked away immediately and politely. Except Brock of course.

Ash turned his gaze back to Misty, who felt a bit unnerved by Ash staring at her.

Dawn's body started to grow larger and older, her body turning into that of a supermodel.

"BROCK LOOK AWAY YOU PERVERT", Dawn shouted. Sensing her distress the figure raised his hand and the barrier around Brock turned opaque

"I'm turning into a Lopunny?" she asked examine her body. Her rapidly furrying large breasts and butt. Her thin waste and wide hips giving her a perfect hour glass figure. "I'm gorgeous" she muttered to herself.

Also, fluff started to appear around her collar, much like a real Lopunny, but her body was retaining it's proportions.

Her ears vanished and her hair changed into new, long floppy Lopunny ears. Also her eyebrows began to change color to be the same color as the fluff. Fluff also appeared around her wrists.

Dawn admired herself no longer ashamed of her nudity. Her eyes reddened as her face pulled out into a dainty muzzle and she grew a cute fluffy tail.

Her hands and feet became more pawlike, her feet becoming digigrade, as the fur from up to her knees down became a lighter color.

Dawn was now admiring herself. she gave the other girls a 'eat your heart out' look. New power and energy set in and she felt a strange new feeling in her body. She let out a moan.

The barrier lowered., "Die as a woman and be reborn, rabbit immortal" the figure said to Dawn.

The figure turned to the next panel.

Misty tried to back away, but the field was keeping her from doing so.

"Hello, Misty Waterflower," the voice said.

"H-Hello...", Misty said, somewhat nervous.

"Why are you scared? You where chosen for your courage, your temper and your inner beauty."

"...I just- wasn't expecting anything like this...", Misty admitted.

"The future is full of things one doesn't expect, did you expect love would come to you in the form of him?" the figure gestured to Ash.

"No...", Misty admitted.

"Fear not then and embrace this gift," the voice said as the light flooded her area and her clothing was disintegrated as with the others.

Misty self conscientiously covered herself up.

White fur instantly covered her front. from her neck down to the inside of her knees. Yellow fur covered up the remaining skin as a familiar black pattern snaked into the yellow.

Misty's eyes widened, "Wh-Why am I an electric type?", she wondered.

"You are the tiger" the voice said as Misty's hair grew down to her lower back. Becoming light and silky. Mild shocks went through it every few seconds.

Misty gasped out at the first shock.

White fur covered her butt growing into two tufts that created a heart shape as a long zigzag tail grew out behind her. Her face pulled out into a large tiger muzzle as two large saber fangs grew out her mouth. eye's turning blood red. For a moment everyone could see the true face of Raikou, It was feline and yet exquisitely beautiful then in a flash of light a black mask covered her face from brow to muzzle.

Including a large white spiked whisker design, her hands grew pads and large extendable claws.

her feet became digigrade with similar claws. Misty's form grew larger both in size and muscle mass.

Misty now, once again, stood taller then ash, despite being muscular she still radiated beauty. Her chest swelled out, her modest bust becoming huge round furry globes.

Her waist shrunk as her hips and butt expanded leaving a mixture of muscle and a Venusian beauty.

"Die as a woman," the figure said even as Misty felt power flood her. Thunder crashed behind her.

Misty roared out, her roar not as loud as Ash's, but just as commanding.

"And be reborn, radiant tiger immortal" the figure said as the barrier dropped.

Misty moved over to Ash and the Tiger and Dragon stared at one another for a moment. Rather than doing what was expected of them via the myth, the two embraced.

"...What do you want anyway? Why are we all here? Why can't I see?", Brock asked, a bit upset.

"You are here cause you best represent the qualities of the creature within who's year you where born."

"You, Mr. Slate are strong and expendable to a fault, but you are easily swayed by your perverted lusts."

"Hey! I'm not easily swayed!", Brock protested.

The lights of his barrier showed the image of a Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny.

"I-I...", Brock stammered.

The images vanished suddenly "And so you well be the bull."

Brock sighed. There was no winning this one. The lights flooded brocks barrier.

Brock's clothes all vanished much like the others before him and thick, matted brown fur quickly covered his body, thankfully for both the readers and the narrator.

His ears became triangles and moved up to the top of his head as he grew two huge horns on his head, him screaming the whole time in pain. Brock's face pulled out into a bovine muzzle as strange markings appeared on his face. His fingernails hardened until they were of similar consistency to hooves.

Darker brown fur started to grow around his collar bone, and a Long Tail grew out of his rear end, and split into three. Brock's feet changed position as they hardened completely into hooves. Finally, his body got toned into getting a bit of muscle, but not improved enough to really attract anyone, to his dissappointment.

"Die as a man," the figure said as the light died away, and Brock...felt slightly better then usual. "and be reborn, bull immortal!"

Brock couldn't help himself - he bellowed out loudly into the sky.

The figure turned from Brock floating to the only Pokemon present. "Hello, Pikachu Raidenson", the figure spoke in Pikachu.

"...You're not going to force me to evolve, are you?", Pikachu asked, unsure.

"Why would such an action be necessary?" the voice wondered.

"It wouldn't. But considering all our other dealings with immortals..."

"I am merely a construct here to perform a task and then I well cease to be," the figure said "I have no desire to force the light of evolution on you"

"I can see into your mind. Your traumatizing experience with your mother, she was a Raichu."

"...yes. She was."

"Do not blame your father for leaving you in that stump, he did it to save your life."

Pikachu did not respond to this.

"I am sorry, I have overstepped my rights" the figure apologized.

"So what will happen to me? I'm not a human like they are, so..."

"You will become only a bit humanlike," the figure said

"So... Pikapi will be able to understand me?"

"Yes" the figure said

"Good. Then I'm ready."

"Courage and bravery against all odds are rare traits for any small pokemon, especially when they are of a prey species such as yours, accept what's rightfully yours" the figure said lifting his hand.

The light filled quicker as Pikachu wasn't wearing anything to begin with.

Pikachu's body started to grow. His proportions started to match that of a human.

His face changed to look more unique, and he became lean and yet muscled. His feet changed to digigrade as well.

His tail lengthened as well, matching his new proportions, "I- This...", he stammered.

"Die as a simple pokemon" the figure said as lighting actually struck Pikachu despite the clear night sky. "be reborn, rat immortal"

Pikachu blinked his new eyes, which looked somewhat similar to Ash's old ones.

Leaving Pikachu to reacquaint himself with his body the figure moved to the next slot, it seemed to stop in thought as it eye'd Tracey. "Tracey Sketchit, i must admit certain qualities about you are different then what the pig immortal should be, but that well be remedied"

"Like my slim fit form and my artistic sensibility?" Tracey asked

"Not really, no" the figure said, "In fact the pig was a great patron of the arts, a artist, singer, and dancer. the pig invented many dances types still used today, the belly dance, the strip tease, the pole dance."

"The pig made women dance like that?" Tracey asked perturbed.

"Uh… sure…" the figure said awkwardly raising his hand to avoid further questions. Tracey tried to cover himself as his clothes dissolved in the light.

Tracey's ears moved up and became long wide triangles, gaining short black fur over them. His head and chest covered in purple fur. well his arms and legs covered in similar black fur to his ears. His fingers and toes turned purple and semi beastial as a long spiral tail grew out behind him.

His face pulled out and his nose became a pink pig snout. His iris expanded covering the center of his eye.

a pearl appeared on his chest well two more appeared on his forehead.

"Now for stage two," the figure said.

Tracey was about to ask what he meant when he felt a tingle on his chest. which expanded into two large mounds each topped with a black nipple.

Lower down Tracey felt another change and nearly screamed.

Meanwhile her body gained fat. Surprisingly the end result was not some morbidly obese creature people would expect of the pig. but rather a creature of a beauty all it's own.

"Die as a man and be reborn, pig immortal." the figure said as the light left.

Tracey took a full minute to understand what happened to her. Then, to everyone's surprise (or not!), Tracey pulled out her sketchpad and tried to draw herself.

The figure moved to the next person which turned out to be Max.

"Hello, Mr. Maple"

"U-Um... Hi...", Max said, unsure.

"Is something wrong?"

"After seeing what happened to the others... I'm a bit nervous."

"Why?" the figure asked

Max glanced at Tracey, "I'm not going to turn into a girl am I?"

"It wasn't planned we could do that if you wish."

"N-No! No, thank you."

"Very well" the figure said, "Max maple you desire respect but to chase that desire you have given up everything your youth has offered you"

Max sighed, he had actually heard this lecture before from various adults in his life.

"As the dog immortal you must embrace your inner child as much as your adult side", the figure explained further.

"Really?", Max asked, a little confused at that.

"The dog is a symbol for youth, energetic and happiness, while at the same time courageous and strong, loyal and playful"

"O-Oh...", Max said, not aware of this, "But am I going to be a kid forever?"

"No, in fact you well need to gain years to fill the place given to you"

"Really?", Max said, trying his hardest not to sound excited.

"Yes" the figure said, as he raised his hand, "A new life awaits Mr. Maple"

Max nodded before he started to float upwards like the others. Once again all of his clothing faded away as the light intensified.

Max's body was quickly covered with grey fur to conserve his modesty... and then he started to grow. Not just taller, but older and more muscular, as his face started to pull out into a muzzle. Max blushed and tried to cover himself up as his mind started to mature with his body.

Black markings appeared under his eyes, which shrunk and turned yellow and red. His hair also turned black and grew out. Max groaned at the burning sensation his new muscles gave him, his ears moving to the top of his head and growing out, and his teeth growing sharper. His nose darkened and dampened into a red canine nose.

Everything past his elbows and knees gained darker fur, as claws grew in. A long tail swished behind the former child, and he placed one of his hands over his six-pack, breathing heavily. Finally, his legs became digigrade as was the norm. The canine's change done, he slowly floated to the ground.

"Die as a child" the figure said as power filled Max's form. "and rise, dog immortal"

As the power welled up in Max, he howled out loudly at the full moon that still hung overhead.

The figure turned to May, "And so the sister follows the brother," it said.

"Wh-What did you do to him!", May demanded, "What did you do to my brother!"

"I merely made him what he was always supposed to be" his answer was flat

"That's a lie! We're supposed to be humans!"

"You are truly a rooster," the figure said "had it been our choice you would not be chosen."

"Hey! You take that back!"

"No" the figure said as he raised his hand. "ironically you landed on the rooster."

"R-Rooster? But- But Roosters are..."

"Male, yes" the figure confirmed as the light filled the barrier and her clothing disappeared.

"You-You- You're a pervert, you... whatever you are!"

"I am genderless and made out of concentrated energy" the figure said, "and my databases show you are hardly an attractive specimen, your excessive mammary size for your age non-withstanding."

Red feathers began to sprout from her skin leaving an itchy sensation as her bust receded.

May started scratching herself like crazy, "M-My breasts! Ho-How dare you!"

"You are male, such things are unnecessary" the figure said as her hair turned white and grew out.

May stammered as he looked at himself

His body grew taller and muscular as he could already feel he was male. His hair grew down to the top of his chest forming a sort of sweater. Below it was a yellow patch before leading to his red body.

His feet dried out and became scaly as the rearranged into taloned bird feet. white hair grew out to cover them completely from view.

His hands and forearms turned grey as they also dried out and became scaly, hands morphing to gain two thick fingers and a thumb each topped with a white claw. His eye's turned black and yellow as two horns grew out in a 'V' shape on top of his head.

Two more spikes grew out on the sides and another four facing slanted downward. Finally his mouth pulled into a beak. He screamed out in agony as his changes finished. A mass of cone shaped feathers forming a short tail finished his changes.

"Die as a woman, and be reborn, rooster immortal" the figure said

He found himself crowing out loud as the transformation finished.

"Is this an original flavor?" the figure asked Cillian as it turned to him.

"Depends on how you mean original."

"I figured a connoisseur such of yourself would know such things"

"Of course, but there are two meanings of the word original."

"Then why don't you say which you would use"

"Well then... Yes, it is an original flavor. One unlike any other."

"It is about to get a lot more spicy" the figure said.

"I- am going to guess that I'm the monkey, going by the order?"

"Very observent" the figure said, "Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be..."

The figure raised his hand and light flooded Cillians barrier

As before, Cilian's clothes faded away. His green hair started to spread all over his body, on his arms, legs and covering most of his head.

Cilian blankly stared, trying to figure out what he was becoming.

His face, chest, hands and feet started to get a thinner, but still existent, coat of yellow fur as a familiar tail started to sprout.

Cilian's ears stretched out comically as he started to buff up considerably. The pain burned and he of course shouted. White fur sprouted on his shoulders and replacing his eyebrows.

Finally his hair shaped into the form of a leaf, leaving him a very buff Simisage.

"Die as a man, rise, monkey immortal" the barrier died down.

Cilian found himself screeching out loud like a monkey. Power welled up inside him as well as a mischievous nature he never before

Cilian gave a strange grin, "I think this is a new recipe for success."

The figure then turned to the first of the newcomers, "And now for you..."

"Uh hi", Peter said somewhat unsure, "So let me guess… I'm the next one to do this?"

"That's right."

"And I would be the uh..." peter looked around the zodiac. "the sheep?"

"That's correct."

"That doesn't seem all that manly" peter said

"That's because it's not."

"Wait… That means?" peter asked

"Yes."

"Okay", Peter said. "so an Ampharos then? or a Flaffy?"

"An Ampharos."

"Can they, uh, hear me right now?" Peter looked around

"No, they can't, but I can change that if you want."

"No, it's fine. So what's the sheep like exactly? Closer to the rabbit or the pig?"

"Closer to the Rabbit."

"Okay, can I ask one favor?"

"...Name it."

"Can you change my mind a bit so I'm used to my new body? Oh! And maybe a bit bigger chest?"

The figure seemed amused by this, "Alright."

"Okay, lets do this", peter said shakily.

The figure raises it's hand and light flooded Taze's barrier.

Taze's clothing, like the rest, evaporated. Taze bit down as yellow fur covered his body except for his stomach and the soles of his feet. which where white and black striped around his neck - which grew out slightly. Behind him a long tail grew out with a large red orb at the tip which was black. yellow fur continued down except for two black stripes. A red gem appeared on his forehead as his ears moved up his head and became stripe furred and almost horn like.

His eyes shrank to dots as his face pulled out into a rounded muzzle. all at one his body became more and more feminine. He moaned a bit as his chest expanded into two incredibly large perky breasts with orange nipples. Between his thighs his manhood shifted into a womanhood. Her hands and feet shifting very little into flat paws.

Peter looked over herself as electricity jumped off of her. power flooding her.

"Die as a human. Be reborn, Sheep Immortal," the being said, as Peter bleated.

the figure stopped for a moment at Ritchie. He turned and looked back at ash then turned and looked back at Ritchie, he did this three more times.

"My database said you two looked alike, but this is ridiculous" the figure said.

"...If I had even one Poke for every time that that's been said to me...", Ritchie sighed.

"And for every time you have been mistaken for Ash" the figure said, "but you've never said the other side of it have you, Ritchie?" the figure said

"...what do you mean?", Ritchie asked.

"About the money you made doing that impersonation for that game shop?" the figure said "the autographs you signed for a few young kids?"

Ritchie was silent, ashamed.

"You cannot have the good and complain about the bad" the figure said "you cannot take advantage of something and then argue about it later"

"That won't matter much soon will it?"

"i suppose not no, though your actions are unworthy of a stallion" the figure said

"...I can see where this is going..."

"And?" the figure asked, "Will you accept the punishment handed to you?"

"And what? You'd do it even if I objected, wouldn't you?"

"I wish to gauge your reaction"

"Try 'resignation'," Ritchie admitted.

"You show true nobility, you are truly a fine example of the horse" the figure said lifting his hand as light flooded the barrier.

Ritchie's clothing went the way of all the others who where changed before him.

Ritchie blushed a bit. Just because he knew it was happening didn't mean he was happy about the clothing shredding. Especially since he knew where it was going to go.

He decided to preemptively cover the areas that were bound to need to be covered preemptively.

short cream colored hairs covered Ritchie's body as he grew a foot. His eye's turned a firey red color as his face pulled out into a long horse face. a horn growing out the center of his forehead.

"Nnnghh...", Ritchie moaned out.

His teeth became flat and broad as his mouth moved to the end of his muzzle. his nails hardened and turned black as his four fingers became two and a thumb. His feet scrunched up becoming black hooves. Golden horseshoes appeared on them but Ritchie wasn't spared the pain as they nailed themselves on.

"Was that necessary?"

"It takes a lot to make it so your not rolling on the ground in pain from every section of your body right now" the figure explained. Ritchie's body became slim yet power which belied his thinness.

Ritchie's hair vanished even as a long mane of fire grew down his body. tufts of flame also appeared on his wrists and ankles. And a long flaming tail grew out behind him.

"Ready?" the figure asked

"As I'll ever be, I guess..."

Ritchie's chest began to tingle. The first noticeable change was his nipples turning a fiery orange and getting bigger as behind them fat began to build, forming two round breasts then grew out. they where by far the smallest of the female immortals. the nipples however where larger and more noticeable. Between his thighs, Ritchie could feel another change, this one seemed more pleasurable then it needed to be.

Ritchie started moaning loudly. If Brock were paying attention, he'd have thought she sounded like a porno star.

"Die as a man, and rise, horse immortal" the figure said as the barrier fell. "and you may want to consider looking for a mate soon, breeding season is soon"

Ritchie let out a loud neigh and then she spoke normally, "Thank you for the advice."

Power filled Ritchie quickly… Wild, raw power.

"And now for you," the being said as it looked at Iris.

"why is that… that KID the dragon! _I_ should be the dragon! I know alot more about dragons!" Iris raved angrily.

"In addition to when you were born, you also do not have the traits of a dragon. You are not passionate, or loyal. You only follow around Ash to belittle him so you can hide your own self-doubts, though you have a bit of mysticism that Ash does not, despite his chosen one past."

Iris stood there flabbergasted.

"It's true, isn't it? You're so embarrassed that your completely unable to train any Pokémon other than Excadrill in any good manner, and Excadrill had stopped working with you."

"But...I mean..". Iris was stuttering now.

"Your birth sign and personality fit you for the Snake."

Iris couldn't even argue right now.

And so the being, seeing that there was no objection,, lifted up his arm, causing Iris to rise in her pillar and her clothes to start vanishing as it lit up.

Iris covered herself quickly. Iris's skin started to be covered in purple scales as her legs started to merge together into a long tail.

Iris bit her lip in pain.

Her tongue started to get long, thin and forked as her face pulled out into that of a cobra.

She was still trying to deal with the pain

Her hair attached to her back and turned into a serpentine "hood", Iris looked at herself solemnly. not sure what to say really.

Her chest grew out, finally growing some actual breasts, though they lacked actual nipples. Her arms became slender and lithe.

Iris attempted to balance the new weight well balancing on her tail. Markings appeared on the inside and the back of the hood, mostly diamonds and abstract shapes. Her eyes also shrunk down so they took up less of her face, which was fortunate considering her small face now.

A strange surge of power entered Iris's body as she felt more crafty than before.

"Die as a human, and be reborn, Snake immortal."

Iris hissed out loudly.

The figure moved towards the space behind where Pikachu stood staring at the last person there. "Hello"

"I- why am I here? I thought there were only 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac," he asked.

"The cat lost his place do to trickery" the figure explained. "The Cat immortal is still prominent in this group"

"Many, many, many years ago, Arceus held a feast and invited many types of pokemon to come. The cat had been away so the rat told the cat about the feast but playing a trick the rat told the cat it was a day later than it was actually held. The rat then arrived first riding upon the bull."

"...I see... And the cat missed the feast entirely."

"Yes" the figure said. "it was always a source of bitterness between the cat and the rat"

"Doesn't mean I'm going to be bitter with this guy here, does it?"

"No, the immortals where not the original Pokemon. The cat and the rat immortals where good friends, hence why they where so close together"

"That-That's good... Cause from what I've heard about that particular Pikachu, being on his bad side would be the worst thing."

"Now there are two ways this could go," the figure said as two images appeared on his barrier, "You have the right to choose the masculine Persian," the figure of a persian morph appeared, though he was not overly big and muscular he seemed imposing in his own way, "Or the feminine, the Liepard. The original immortal could switch between them but I am afraid we can only give you one" the stunning figure of a beautiful Liepard appeared.

Timothy thought for a moment. He didn't want to be a female like his friend - spending all of eternity like that would probably eventually drive him crazy.

"I'll take the Persian, I- I don't think I'd make a very good female."

"Very well" the figure raised his hand.

Creme colored fur started to sprout up all over Timothy's body as a red gem grew into his forehead.

His ears moved up to the top of his head and grew pointed, with black fur at the ends, as his body started to bulk up a little, not as much as Max, but he seemed more athletic than the boy had become.

His feet changed into digigrade as he screamed out in pain at the change, a long tail appearing behind him and swishing back and forth. His eyes grew smaller and red.

Whiskers grew out from the man's face and he let out a sort of cat like noise as his teeth sharpened.

"Die as a man and rise, cat immortal." the figure said as power filled Timothy.

Timothy let out a cat like roar.

The figure's form began to flicker as timothy stepped away from his circle. "My task is done" he said.

"Now there are three rules, I should leave you with," he said looking at each of them.

"What do we do from here?", Timothy asked.

"You well be sent back to your homes momentarily and you may live as you choose from there but please listen to these rules."

"#1 None of you must ever destroy another immortal, your power derives from each other."

Pikachu nodded, "Of course not. They're my best friends."

"#2 Be careful with the bonds you make, you alone are immortal besides you only the legendaries live as long."

Max tilted his head, "What's... What's that mean?"

"To stand still in the river of time is to see the passing of many" the figure said.

Max didn't look satisfied, but he surmised that that's all he's going to get.

"And last, your actions shape the future of men, watch every action carefully."

Ash sighed, "That doesn't sound like it's any different from usual for me," he rumbled.

"And so our last action is complete, legendaries be with you immortals." the figure said as the lights swept up the thirteen of them and sent them away in different directions. The figure returned to the center and with little ceremony it's existence ended as quickly as it had began.

* * *

Ash and his traveling companions got up, a bit groggily.

"Was- was that a dream?", Cilian wondered, for a moment.

"I think you'll see it's not," Ash rumbled. The deepness of Ash's voice was enough to snap the others back to full conciousness.

"Great," iris said trying to balance on her tail. "Thisss iss perfect, am i hisssing my sss'sss?"

"Yup," Pikachu said. He noticed Ash grabbing his Pokébelt and getting ready to take off, "...Ash?"

Axew woke up to see his owner as a snake and hid behind a nearby Rock, "Ew! Axew!"

"It'sss okay, Axxxxew" iris tried to coax him to her.

He peeked out from behind the rock. Why was this creature familiar?

"Ash, where are you g- oh. Oh... You're going to see _her_ aren't you?"

"...Did you see how lonely she looked? She needs me, Pikachu."

"It'sss Irisss, Axxxew" iris said

Axew almost fell over, "Ew?", he said, looking at her and coming over to her slowly

Iris reached out to pick him up.

Axew continued to approach slowly.

"Pikachu? I'll leave you in charge here. I'll be back," Ash said, as he took off.

Iris reached out and gently picked Axew up. "It'sss okay," she said

Ash took off and flew into the sky in the direction of Kanto. Pikachu turned to the others, "So... You guys want to stay here, or should we keep moving?"

"We ssshould get off the road until we figure thingsss out," Iris said.

Cilian grinned a goofy grin, "I dunno... I'd like to see what I can do."

Pikachu blinked a bit, "Really, Cilian?"

They looked at Pikachu for his decision.

"We'll keep on moving. But we'll try to stay out of people's way for the time being. We need to be easy for Ash to find on his way back," Pikachu said, trying to find a medium between the two choices. They nodded as they went to break camp.

Ritchie moaned as she woke up quickly examining her body in a strange mix of hope and horror that it was a dream. she got up slowly and looked around. waking Sparky up the two of them sat down for a long talk.

Misty sighed, looking at her new self in the mirror. Boy would she get a freak out from her sisters... but at the same time, to see Ash again, after all this time...

She moved her hand across her body for a moment before she sighed and walked out into the main gym room... But, to her surprise, someone was waiting for her there.

"Hi, Misty," Ash said. He had obviously broken through the wall to get in at this time of night, but, to see him at all...

Misty rushed over and embraced him.

Ash embraced her back, "Words cannot express how much I missed you, Misty."

"Same here" Misty said

"You were already beautiful," Ash said, taking her face into his hand, "But now your beauty is unmatched."

"So, Mr. Dragon, how do you feel?"

"I feel like I could take on the world."

"_We_ can take on the world," she corrected him

He kissed her deeply, stopping any further conversation.

It's about time! some of Misty's Pokémon were saying.

{it's about time} the legendaries said as they spied down on the two of them.

Tracey woke up in her room with a snort. looking down at her new body she quickly went to grab her sketch pad. she would have a surprise for Professer Oak in the morning. now why was she drawing a male Emboar on her sketchpad?

May grinned down at the Pokéball he was holding. Blaziken would do nicely. Also... He had some strange thoughts in mind for Drew. He'd be doing whatever he wanted by the end of the day tomorrow, that much he was sure.

Brock yawned as he got out of bed a little disappointed at his lack of physique. maybe he should workout? but for now he decided to get to work, he had eternity to figure out medicines for pokemon.

"Uh... Taze?", Timothy asked.

"What's wrong Tim?" Taze asked as she approached him in a somewhat suggestive way.

"Wh-Why are you acting like that?", the cat said, looking a bit nervous, "I know we're immortals now, but..."

"Oh? And how am I acting?" she asked.

"Well for one, earlier you tried to get into my sleeping bag... while I was still in it."

"It's cold. I figured we could both use some warming up" she giggled.

The cat blushed, "You- you're really into this, aren't you?"

"My mind was adjusted to fit my new body" she said "why don't you like me?"

"N-No, I like you, I- I just think you're trying to move a little quick."

"Why do you say that?" she was now close enough to brush up against him.

"J-Just we've been friends for ages, but It never even occurred to me that we'd EVER even CONSIDER being anything more than that."

"Well neither of us swung that way, so it wasn't an option to be thought of" she said "but things are different"

"Still, I think we should work into it a bit slower... or at least let me sleep on it first."

"Aren't you cold?" she asked brushing up against him.

"N-N-Not really," He lied.

"You're shivering" she said "come on we'll snuggle" she said. "Just a snuggle i promise."

"Alright...", he conceeded, figuring that he wouldn't get out of this.

She smiled dragging him to her sleeping bag.

"-Ah-Ah..."

Dawn woke up happily. humming to herself as she broke her camp. she has already sent messages to Kenny, Leona, Barry and Zoey to meet her in the next town. She really wnated to surprise them.

on an after thought she checked her pokeballs, maybe it was time she help Bunneary evolve.

Humming she headed off to the nearest town.

Max stared at the full moon. It awakened a new feeling inside of him. The power and age he was granted, it all happened so fast.

Not being able to resist, Max howled at the moon once, and then headed back to his bed. He'd think of what to tell his parents in the morning...

Suddenly the door started to open, and Max's instincts took over, him pouncing on the person who was entering after giving them a bite in the shoulder to disarm them.

But then he saw who it was, and his eyes widened…

The End?


	30. Avenging Justice

Avenging Justice

Disclaimer: Don't Own, Don't- does anyone even read these anymore?

Writer's Note: Happy Independance Day! This Chronicle was written by Light the Lucario, Tazkol Master of Emeralds, and myself.

Today, is a wonderful day in the region of Unova. All throughout the city of Nuvema Town, various activities are being set up to celebrate its freedom from Brittianna. The day of Independence, of freedom, and mostly importantly for our spikey hair hero, food.

"Come on, Cilan, isn't the food ready yet?", Ash asked.

"It needs just a few more minutes, Ash" Cillian said testing his cooking.

"...That reminds me, what exactly is this independance day about, anyway?", Ash asked.

"You don't even know that? You're SUCH a Kid, Ash!", Iris said, to Ash's irritation.

"SHUT UP!" Misty shouted as her mallet came down hard on iris's head.

Ash is also join in by his fellow friends from other various regions. Such as, Luke from the Orre Region, Timothy from Johto, and Matt from the afterlife- er Lavendar Town as all call it. Quite the nice place but one you shouldn't stay in for long. As May and her brother Max learned when they visited it during her tour in Kanto, doing the Grand Festival. The two of them are his faithful companions from Hoenn. A returning friend is Dawn from Sinnoh, who joined up a while back on Ash's journey through Unova.

Timothy decided to explain, "Well, Unova and Oore are part of a larger continent, obviously. They won their independance from Britannia a few hundred years ago. Thus the regions started to try to uphold the idea of peace and justice... of course, Unova was better at it than Oore. No offense, Luke."

"At least we are getting better! Especially after I helped defeat Cipher... again," smiles as his eevee meows back in agreement.

"Ha. Well, Ash certianly Helped, I hear. So did those heroes from a few years ago... Anyway.. Matt, I'm surprised to see you here."

"What, this was Unovian only?" Matt asked, "Didn't see you rejecting the free beer during Canidis day"

"It was SAKE. And no, I'm just surprised to see you in a large group. You used to hate crowds."

"I hate _stupid_ crowds" Matt said

"But Lavender Town is crowded..." Luke said as he petted his Eevee, whose at home at his shoulder," I mean didn't you get first hand experience with that one Ash?"

"I'd- rather not think about it. it was my first brush with death," Ash muttered.

"Piii-ka!", Pikachu agreed.

Timothy's PokéGear started playing.

"Oh hey, an address speech... was this scheduled for today?", Max wondered.

"I- don't think so."

The speech on the radio didn't really make any sense.

"Are they trying to sound like a Mew?", May asked.

Ash was suddenly in quite a bit of pain. The change started to wreck through out his body as a well chistled chest sprouts forward, ripping his shirt apart. Dark ebony feathers covered all over as his lower body starts to match his upper. Legs with powerful leaping powress ripped the jeans apart, a tail of feathers burst forth like a flower in bloom. Dark red colours covered the tips, with white in the middle to signify the species of his change.

Dark grey feathers grew in all over Misty's body as two large wings burst out her back. the wings had light grey in a design resembling a cracked egg. A large flat tail grew in behind her covered in a mix of dark and light grey feathers. her lower body and legs where covered in choclate brown feathers as her feet dried out becoming grey taloned feet. her eye's grew wider and yellow becoming oval shaped and almost stuck in a slightly clothed 'come hither' look. her face pulled out into a large yellow beak.

Max started to grow in height and muscles started to grow on him as he aged up. Black fur spread all over his body and red, wicked claws sprouted on his hands and feet. His ears grew up to the top of his head and his green hair turned into a long flowing red man with black tips. His eyes changed to a bright blue color.

Luke was shocked as he witnessed everyone changing in front of him. In fact, he is joining in on the change as he sprouts a rather large tail feather, with blue at the tips and white in the middle. He gave a squawk in shock as he gains a rather sharp beak. His eyes turned a deep azure as it filled with sharp courage, he gains a feathery headress that starts out with blue, and turning white at the top. Almost like hair, white feathers sprouted along his ebony feathered neck.

Cilian's skin took on a red tone as his green hair turned white and grew out long. His hands became clawed as his body gained new muscles especialy in the legs. His face grew two small horns on the top of his face as his face morphed into a curved beak.

Timothy's body started to buff up and he grew slightly older. His feet became more like hooves as a trio of tails grew in as his face changed shape.

"Hey what his happening to everyone?! Stop moaning like such kiiiimooo," Iris went into a bit of shock as her muzzle pops out. Brown fur covered most of it and her hair started spazzing out and takes a spherical shape. Transforming into a perfect afro with a comb on the top of it. A long slender black tiped tail slipped out and hung lazily in the air. Brown fur covering most of it as her shoes ripped apart as dark grey hooves replaced Iris's feet. Her legs change into a digitrade position, leaving Iris a bit bowlegged.

Dawn's blonde hair changed becoming four long fearthers, the outer two where orange well the inner two where red. Black covered here eye's and down her cheeks to her chin as tan coloured feathers covered her stomach and chest well her back was covered in dark brown feathers. Two large wings burst out her back as her feet became pink talons.

Brock's skin started to turn a slimy blue color as his eyes managed to open for once but they were completely orange. His cheeks became orange cheek pouches as his hands and feet changed mostly black. Brock started to shrink down to a small child size, like Max had been originally as his face rearranged into another shape.

May watches in shock as her body becomes covered in soft pink fur. Most of her head is covered in dark pink, her ears suddenly shot straight upto her head and enlongated to look like rabbit ears. Strangely a pink bow casading into white attaches it self to her left ear, with ribbons flowing down next to hear hair. Her body becomes slimmer and graceful, as if like that of a ballerina.

Matt's form took on an incredibly pale complexion as his face pulled out into a large muzzle as two large fangs grew out the side. His hands grew out inot large broad clawed hands. His shoes burst as his feet became large flat clawed paws. His ears became round and moved to the top of his head and a relatively small tail grew out behind him.

Meanwhile in the radio station, the DJ didn't notice as he was broadcasting, his body sprouted yellow fur and his ears grew HUMONGOUS as they reached to the top of his head. His eyes grew large and orange as oranges tufts of fur grew in his oversized ears. His face pulled out into a muzzle.

"For those of you just tuning in, I will reread the Mew Transcript -

'Thank you Mother, Fellow Legendaries. To all those in the sound of my voice. I request that you lend me your ear. For I have need to speak of heavy things.

The era of man is coming, and you fear it. I tell you, not to. With the coming of man, your descendents will become stronger then you are now. Humanity while some will go through to harm and use our powers for evil. Others will rise up and request our powers for good. We must help the good of humanity.

In the coming years, centuries from now, I have seen it already thanks to Celebi, their will rise a human that will start a new era of thinking, of friendship and working together. His name I cannot speak it now, but it will come from a word of both death and rebirth. His time will be a time of upheaval when the last of evil will gather upon all the lands of this world in hopes of shattering what has been built.

We must join with the humans to fight this darkness. Without the strength of all of us combined, we cannot stand and we will moan the days where we could have done something to help. Look forward for the day is coming when all will be known and Mankind shall know fully what it means to be part of the cycle of Arceus.

Long Live the Pokemon Race!'"

This time the message came in perfect English. As the transcription was read over the airwaves, the group's transformations finished.

Ash's face suddenly changed from childish looks, to handsome heroical features as his beak becomes sharp and prounced. A feather crest of white feathers covered most of his head, capped red on top of his forehead and between the bangs that now graced his facial features. Both his hands and feet stregthened and grew sharp claws. Strong muscles rippled with power, as the former Pokemon trainer gained the build of a champion of football. Dark yellow scales covered most of his ankles and feet. Flexing them in a bit, Ash gazes at his body in awe.

Ash's memories started to rewrite themselves. He was a superhero, known as "Captain Unova", taking the fourth of July off to be with his family and friends. A Serum was created decades ago that changed him - and a cold sleep later assisted by Lugia would keep him intact until he was needed. His riipped up clothes started swirling around him until it turned into clothing appropriate for an adult - it wasn't his superhero uniform, but it was still reinforced in case he was jumped by a criminal organization.

Light grey feathers covered Misty's face, head and throat forming a large heart over the area.

Like Ash, her memories started to rearrange. She was a self-made woman and part-time agent for the government and an only child. She had met Ash sometime shortly after he had awakened from his deep freeze and the two had fallen quickly in love. After a while, Ash had asked her to marry him. She had happily accepted and the two had adopted a few superpowered children that had been left without parents.

Darker fur appeared on Max's chest and red markings appeared around his eyes and on the sides of his mouth. A Blue ornament appeared around part of his mane.

Max's mind was now filled with new memories and a lot of intellegence. Max had graduated college a bit early, and was highly intellegent, often inventing gadgets for Ash's group of heroes, of which he was a member. Despite this, he could always be found with a good book.

Luke's torso became well built and slim. Strong arms and lets became covered in black feathers as he got strong enough to use a bow with deadly accuracy! Talons erupted from where his hands and feet use to be as he became a shiny braviary. With dark azure feathers gracing his back and wings. His mind filled with memories of being a top sharp shooter and inventor who stopped crime. Saving the day whenever he can.

Cilian's feet where coevered in fluffy white thick fur as his feet became three clawed tallons with incredible strength. His chest chizzeld out despite it's small demanor and turned brght yellow.

Cilian's memories only took a little rewriting. He was still one of three chef brothers, the main differences were his age and his memories of Ash. His clothes reformulated on him in a much better, and less overly refined, manner.

Timothy's memories changed him from an ordinary Trainer to a superhero on break from superheroing and a current Football Captain ~ one of the best. The reason he had taken a break from superheroing was partially cause his powers had temporarily been weakening, but also to aquire money to live off of. His powers had recently been coming back, but he wanted to finish off this, his fourth season, before he came back to crimefighting. His clothing reformed around him, becoming a muscle Tee that showed off his bulk pretty well, and his jeans had simply reformed.

A robust body type graced Iris. No longer was she as tiny as a Bellsprout, now she held true muscular power required to tame the meanest of dragons. But she was still very short, large afro hair and horns compensating for quite a lot. Eyes of a cow were not needed for Iris, who already had them due to a long stubborn streak that would make Misty look like a housewife. As such, even though she was tiny her torso proved to be quite the hourglass. Seems someone is taking after Miss Amelia, Defender of Justice.

Iris still remained a Dragon Trainer, but more in the fact that she would help a Dragon who came to her to learn what she needed to. She was a beginner at it, but Ash had assured her she'd get better (even if he didn't particularly believe it himself).

Dawn's face pulled into a wicked looking curved beak. Behind her a large fan of red feathers burst from her skirt. her eye's seemed to narrow and gain an almost permanent intensity.

Dawn's memories rewrote, as everyone else's had so far. Dawn was now a world famous model and a close friend of Misty's. She had met Ash once when she was kidnapped for ransom, and she stayed close to the Ketchum family ever since.

Brock, now the size of a small child, had white stripes that resembled (but weren't, honest!) bandages added to his body.

His memory rewrote itself, and was almost completely erased. His daddy was a friend of Mr. Ketchum from some case, but he wasn't sure the specifics - thogh being of such a young age, he didn't care either. He was just happy there were people around this celebration.

May's body became strong, not in the sense of rippling muscles, but of one of grace. Over whole newly pink body shone over with sharp disclpline. Through the entirity of the change, her hands and feet became slightly bigger paws to help adapt to her new body figure. Digitgrade legs caused a bit of imblance for her but was quickly changed due to the growth of a slender soft tail. Eyes as bright as the afternoon sea near a beach shone with maturity and childlike passion.

May's mind was rewritten to establish her as a famous dancer, with fans all over the world. She could dance to any type of music, which made her well known in music circles.

Matt's body seemed to explode as his muscles bulked up and he gained almost 3 feet of height. His shoulders stretched outward to the point where his shirt barely holding, looking as though it could burst at a mere muscle flex.

Matt's mind was sent reeling as new memories flooded his thoughts. the beartic's size had made life on the straight and narrow a struggle, he was often offered jobs as muscle for less seedy characters which he kept away from. currently he was employed as a bouncer at a reasonably sucessful nightclub. Normaly he would avoid these kinda parties but he was on vacation and his friend Timothy had been inssitent on him getting out more.

Meanwhile, back in the radio station, the young DJ's changes were finishing up as he grew a large, fluffy yellow and red tail, showing him as a true Fennikin.

The Fennekin morph smiled as he clicked the off air switch as his time slot was over. He grinned as he looked over at the corner of the room where his bow and quiver were tucked away. The station he was happy to say was letting him free lance a little as a DJ for the moment when he was not fighting crime. So far his luck had held out for this guest feature, but he realized tomororw was the end of his little self imposeed vacation from crime fighting full time while he recovered from a near fatal attack two months ago.

The Fennekin placed his headphones down and moved to pick up his bow and quiver of arrows before walked to the room of the building. He pulled off an old tarnished pokeball before tossing it into the air and a Fearrow appeared without talking the Fennekin climbed aboard the flying Pokemon and began to fly towards one of the larger parks in the area.

Meanwhile the party was at full swing. Most of the members of Ash's team were here - in their secret identities of course - while Cilan continued to cook a feast fit for royalty, in addition to the standard of Burgers and Hotdogs. Seems you could take the chef out of the five star kitchen, but not the kitchen out of the Chef.

Jean Luc, the Pikachu and Ash's right hand man, walked up to a Quilava, "Peter, I didn't expect to see you here. And is this woman who I think she is?"

He hugged the stunning blaziken close to him. "This is MJ, Mary Jane Wattson...Petrol" Peter smiled at the last part

"Pleasure to meet you," Jean Luc said with a warm smile.

"The pleasure's all mine" She smiled extending a hand.

Jean Luc shook her hand warmly. He was glad that Peter had finally found someone - with how life had been dumping on the poor guy.

"hey gusy lets break out the beers and get some chimichangas" a gravely voice spoke up suddenly.

"...Who invited him?", Bruce, the Gliscor, asked gravely.

"The writers," the voice was coming from a primeapre draped in red and black and covered head to toe in weapons.

"...I'd remark about how we said your CASUALS - but knowing you, this is modest," Jean Luc remarked, used to the Primeape's wierdness, "But Wade, please, no firing weapons in front of the child."

Clark, the Bulbasaur, was standing by his wife Lotus Lane, and was ready to move incase Wade broke his promise.

"So this is a party where it won't become the end of all we know it? Like all the dozen of times that happen," Luke asked the group in concern.

Charlie Cage, the Charizard, laughed and slapped his back, "If it ever comes to that, we can face it off, as always."

The anthro Braviary finds himself faceplanted on the floor and moans in pain," Gah, watch that strength of yours!"

"Heh. Sorry."

"Ugah, well Mr. Chosen one better keep an eye out at least for stuff," he sighs as he picks himself off the floor.

"Don't worry. Clark and I have everything under control, Luke," Ash said, surprising Luke as he didn't even know he was listening.

"Heh, your hearing is as sharp as ever Ash. Just leave some for me if it really comes down to saving the world," He laughs."

"Hey there, sword boy!" Wade smiled as he prodded kensuke. "How's sword boy doing? Having fun sword boy? Are ya are ya are ya?"

Kasuke grunted at the poking, "What do you want, Wade?"

"Hi" Wade waved laughing to himself.

"...You must think you're a REAL comedian, Wade," the Sceptyle said, while rolling his eyes.

"No, if i was a real comedian I wouldn't be making as good of money" Wade pointed out.

As the party continued on and the various people gathered continued to banter, something was seen streaking across the sky in the distance.

Moments later a Fearow landed on the ground and another super hero lowered himself to the ground. "Hello all."

"Oh! Hey, it's been a while. I hear your temporary 'retirement' is almost up," Timothy said to the Fennekin.

"Yeah, I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. While its been nice to see the world from the ground level, will help me better when fighting evil."

"Yeah, glad to hear it, Ethan."

The new changes that came out from the radio has left many of the heroes in new state of personality and roles. Now fitted to handle threats of the superhuman nature, their life goals are now changed to professionally save the world on a daily basis. But for now, on this days of days, they gather with non super Pokemorph friends to celebrate a day of Unova's freedom. Long eager to dig into Cilan's Flamethrowered burgers.


End file.
